Action Pack
by Shade Penn
Summary: Comic Book adaptation of the Spectacular Spider-Man with Naruto thrown into the mix. Because of one simple change, see how these two worlds collide and the butterfly effect that is put into place because of it.
1. Chapter 1

_# Action Pack Issue 1_

_June 23, 2008, 8:45 am-Uzumaki Apartment_

A brown-haired teenaged form woke up and frowned, his expression one of annoyance as he slammed down on his alarm clock and grabbed a clean set of clothing consisting of black pants, black sandals, a dark blue shirt, and a green Chunin vest. He ran a hand thrown his hair as he went into the kitchen and got out a cup of instant ramen.

Uzumaki Kira waited as the bowl heated up and looked through the fridge as he sorted through the food, meticulously throwing out any outdated food and considering that he had to buy the already ripe food, it was no surprise that most of the fruit and vegetables had to be thrown out.

Kira gathered up the garbage and the ramen boiled, causing him to pour it into a bowl and began eating out of it, the carbs being converted into energy that served as a 'pick me up' for him to snap him out of his semi-aware state of mind and the last traces of sleep faded from his orange eyes.

_#1 "Recollections"_

The brunet put his dishes into the sink and grabbed the garbage and headed out of his apartment and paused for the barest of moments as he thought about his brother's first C-rank mission. He felt a sense of pride and protectiveness come over him at that before tossing the garbage into the disposal bin at the front of the apartment complex and sent chakra down into his legs to jump onto the nearest building and jump from roof to roof to avoid the glares he'd get from walking amongst the villagers.

Naruto could still keep his idealism of this place and continue to have any hope of this village accepting them. He couldn't crush that spirit; it was one of the few things that had him still clinging to that last shred of humanity that his brother still thought he possessed.

Kira had long ago given up on this place after finding out their mother was still alive, albeit in a coma. It had been an accident on his brother's part when the boy had been eight and had been sent to the hospital because of a particularly nasty attack on him when he'd been out of the village on a mission.

Oh, he'd made those who dared to touch his brother pay dearly for attacking him. He didn't know who specifically it was, so he'd just opted to make the whole damn village suffer for it, even doubly after his brother had asked him if their mother was still alive. He'd been confused as to what Naruto had been talking about at the time and asked to explain, and the boy did, saying he'd seen a woman who looked just like Kushina sleeping in a hospital bed hooked up to a machine.

Kira had been understandably angry at the news that their mother's survival had been kept from them, and he'd voiced his anger to the Sandaime, who'd tried to explain he didn't want to give him or Naruto any sense of false hope of her waking up.

Naruto, like the ever hoping idealist he was, had accepted this, but Kira had not been so forgiving, and what little respect he'd had for the man had died that day. His respect for pretty much anyone he'd known before his father died had dissipated.

Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kakashi, they'd all turned their backs on them as they allowed him and Naruto get kicked out of their home and be sent to the village orphanage.

Naruto didn't remember any of it because he had still been an infant at the time, but Kira remembered it all too well. The first few weeks there had been the hardest as he'd already been emotionally scarred from watching his father die right in front of him and leave him with the parting words of 'I know you'll do what's right.'

Kira had foolishly held onto hope that one of Kushina or Minato's friends would come and take them away from that place, but no one ever did come. His growing hatred of Konoha had only festered as he and Naruto were locked in one room and only got to eat the leftovers from the kitchen, and even at that he had to sneak out and nab some food from the fridge and milk for his brother.

He'd been worried about taking care of his brother at first and was terrified that he'd mess something up, but Kushina and Minato had taught him how to take care of a child should they not be around, as the lessons would be good for later on in life.

Even now Kira felt a harsh bout of irony at how right they'd been.

It was a good thing that they had been kicked out of the orphanage several months later because they told him that Naruto was just crying too loud and it was bothering the other children. Kira had looked at the woman in disgust as he'd heard the other babies crying in the night and no one complained about them. If they were going to kick them out, at least they could tell a good lie.

The then four year old had used a drop of his brother's blood to allow access into their father's home, as Kira wanted his brother to know what could have been, even if he'd never remember it. He could at least hope the imprint of their parent's proud and happy expressions were in the baby's mind.

Well, at least they still had each other.

Their life inside their home had been peaceful, but sadly it was too good to last, as someone had caught a glimpse of him outside the building in the garden that their mom used to relax and plant vegetables. Kira had at the time had never been a fan of gardening as his young mind found it too be too hard, but after they had died, he learned to appreciate this haven of food as it mean he didn't have to leave his brother alone in case he needed him.

After though he'd been spotted, he'd met the Hokage at the gate, as he wasn't going to very well going to go out in the open. The old man had tried to be kind about bringing up the subject of how he got into the building as his advisors and the ninja council had been with him.

He'd bluntly stated that he used Naruto's blood to get in. When countered that only someone with the Yondaime's blood could have worked, he'd stated in a flat 'Duh.' And his overall opinions of adults plummeted that day as well.

They'd finally seemed to realize what he meant because they'd asked him how that could be. He'd seen the old man's nervous expression, but he'd ignored it as he stated that the old man had been the one to sign the witness statement of his parent's secret marriage, even going as far as to ask them whether or not they wanted to see the certificate.

He'd also withheld the fact his parent's had made a copy of it. They weren't idiots after all.

The ninja council had seemed very angry that this had been withheld from them and some of them even volunteering to adopt Naruto into their Clan, Kira had taken careful notice that none of them seemed to want to adopt him though. When he'd told them that it was either both of them or neither of them, their offers stopped quite abruptly.

The fact his brother was soon enough outed as the Yondaime's son after getting kicked out of their haven, as no matter how nice a tone the words were said in they were still being forced to leave their home, and got put into a rather small apartment.

The villagers had mixed reactions about his brother, as some of them seemed to grudgingly accept this, while other's still hated him but knew better than to do anything about it. Amazingly though, the secret never left the village as no one wanted any other village to have Naruto, no matter how much they hated him.

Kira though had been continually treated like a pariah, so this wasn't anything new to him when they still kept glaring at him. As long as his brother remained safe, that was all that mattered.

Kira was brought out of his reverie as he landed on the ground in front of the missions building and walked inside to see several Chunin sitting at the desk and he marched up to the desk. He held out his hand without a word and he was handed several mission scrolls and he walked right out of the building.

Kira opened the first one and saw that it was a D-rank mission to clean the Tempura restaurant out and walked down the street to the restaurant district. He ignored the glares he was receiving and as he past the Dango shop, he noticed a familiar head of purple hair.

Anko Mitarashi had been his Genin sensei and he had been her one and only student, the irony never having let up. She hadn't seemed to care about the fact he was only 10 and the first lesson was throwing kunai at him in a game of 'tag.' She also encouraged his own sadistic attitude and while he certainly didn't like her, she was probably the one adult exempt from the adults are useless rule he had.

She looked up from her plate and grinned at him. "Hi kiddo, how ya doing?" she asked and didn't seem put out when Kira didn't reply and she just shrugged it off. "Me? I'm fine, oh," she reached into her trench coat and pulled out an official looking scroll, "from the Hokage, told me to give you this." She said and Kira accepted the scroll. "Later kiddo." She added scooping up her remaining Dango and ruffled Kira's hair up before departing.

Kira's stoic expression cracked slightly as a silver of annoyance came over his face and he flattened his hair back down. He turned his attention to the scroll and looked the content over, his expression growing steadily darker as the air around him dropped several degrees.

This could not be allowed.

* * *

><p><em>Gates outside Konoha, 8:35 am<em>

Uzumaki Naruto saw the gates of home approaching, and the melancholy of what had happened in wave lessened even less. It just meant that he'd be able to see his brother and mother sooner, even if his mother was in a coma. He wanted to clench the locket his brother had given him under his orange jacket, but resisted that. He'd spent the entire mission not looking at it, and soon he'd be able to see the real deal again.

But still, the picture contained a picture of his family, and it meant more than that because it was the only picture had that had him in the photo as well. It was also a source of comfort at the Academy as it served as a reminder to him that his parent's had loved him, even if it was only for an hour.

He'd never been able to fit in with his classmates and despite the fact he was the Yondaime's son, he was ostracized because of it. Or maybe it was the fact that no one liked Kira-nii. He didn't want to think that was the case, but he noticed just how badly people treated his older brother compared to him.

It honestly wasn't fair, but then again, Kira told him from the start that life wasn't fair.

Naruto glanced over at his teammates and sensei, feeling somewhat uplifted as he thought that they were his friends. Or the closest thing he had to friends anyway. He knew they didn't like him at the beginning, even in the Academy that had been blatantly clear, but he thought that they were warming up to him. He'd been annoying then because he'd been so desperate for friends and he made it intensely hard for the other kids to like him.

It didn't help that the other kids thought he was stupid because the teachers seemed to go out of their way to make his school life miserable. If it wasn't for Kira teaching him at their apartment, he wasn't so sure about what he would have ended up like.

They passed the gates and he looked around, but he couldn't help but feel the automatic disappointment when he noticed Kira wasn't around. He knew it was foolish to think Kira would be at the gate waiting for him as he didn't know when he'd be back.

Kakashi looked up from his book at them. "Let's go file the mission report." He said lazily.

"Alright, how much do you think we'll get for doing this? I'll need some more money for ramen!" Naruto exclaimed.

Sakura hit the blond over the head. "Can't you stop thinking about your stomach for once?"

Naruto rubbed his head and covered up his hurt by whining, "Aw, but Sakura-chan-"

Sakura cut him off as she hit him on the head again. "Don't call me that!" she huffed before storming off with their other teammate and sensei toward the Hokage tower.

Naruto felt the throbbing stop and felt a piece of him break again as Sakura kept hitting him. What was he doing wrong? All he wanted was to be her friend, and how did she get the idea that he had a crush on her? He only chose her because she'd seemed as miserable as him in their first year, but then she got mean and catty.

Kira called him an idealist, always trying to see the good in people, and had even said he wished him the best of luck with that task.

The blond wasn't interested in romance, just friendship, as he wasn't comfortable around girls, with the exception of when he snuck into the hospital to visit his mother. But she was in a coma, and she was his mom, so he wasn't sure if it counted.

Naruto caught up with the rest of Team 7 and they walked up the steps of the tower. When they got there, his initial greeting died on his lips as he caught sight of the picture of his father on the wall and wondered if his dad had ever brought Kira here.

He was so distracted by his thoughts that he missed their sensei giving the report and felt a sweltering pain in his head as he looked at Sakura. "What was that for?"

"You weren't paying attention to Kakashi-sensei's report!" Sakura yelled.

"Ma, ma, Sakura," Kakashi waved it off, "it' quite understandably that Naruto would be a little…spacey here." He added as a strained edge appeared in his voice as he too glanced at the picture of the Yondaime.

As if on reflex, both Sakura and Sasuke also glanced at the picture and they both grimaced as they were reminded once again that the village hero had such an idiot for a son.

The door slammed open and everyone jumped in surprise at the killing intent that filled the room as Kira came stalking in, his face showing an expression of barely supressed rage. He ignored Team 7 and walked right up to the Hokage and shoved the paper into his face.

"Explain." He growled.

The old Hokage didn't even read the paper as he sighed, his face seeming to be aged before their eyes. "I…had no choice."

Kira's expression was scornful as he clearly looked like he didn't believe what the old man was saying.

Naruto looked between his brother's unusual burst of emotion and the Hokage's weary face, he knew something was wrong. "Old man, what's going on?"

"Don't talk to Hokage-sama like that!" Sakura shouted and hit Naruto again over the head.

Kira whirled around and glared at the pink-haired girl, who suddenly realized it probably wasn't the best idea to hit Naruto with his brother in the room. "You hit him." he growled darkly. "He's always called the old man that, because he's allowed to. And you have no right to hurt him for that." His voice never changed from its eerily calm tone, but his eyes were getting brighter and redder by the second.

"Kira-nii." Naruto said quietly and Kira looked at him, but he didn't flinch from the look, as he knew very well that anger would never be directed at him.

"And you." He said in a noticeably more gentle tone. He walked past the rest of his brother's team and gestured for Naruto to follow, who did as instructed and the two of them departed.

"Can he just leave like that?" Sakura asked as her fear turned to indignation.

The Sandaime sighed. _'I need a drink.'_

Down in the lobby, Kira grabbed ignored the mission scrolls and took out several sheets out paper from the filing cabinet, but Naruto couldn't see what they were, as he was waiting for Kira to continue talking, and he did. "It's not okay for her to hit you for something so trivial you know."

"But she's a girl, and I can't hit a girl." Naruto replied.

Kira gave his brother a look. "Naruto, that is stupid. Women can be just as dangerous as men, and are our equals, that also means if one punches you for no reason, you punch back." He explained. "We live in a place where being ninja is an equal opportunity thing, and as such, you shouldn't pull punches or else you'll wind up hurt or worse." He sighed heavily. "And besides, that girl isn't worth it."

Naruto started at that. "She'd great, she really is! Honest!"

Kira gave him a skeptical look. "If that's true, then why do you let her hurt you?"

"She's…she's starting to like me?" Naruto asked weakly.

"Naruto…" Kira paused as he frowned at him in concern, "_you don't hurt someone you like!_ That's called abuse, and it's _not_ okay."

Naruto nodded in a subdued manner, as Kira wouldn't lecture him unless he meant what he was saying. "So," he shuffled his feet nervously, "why were you so angry at the old man?"

Someone Kira's anger returned to his eyes. "I got a scroll from the old man saying that the council refuses to continue to let mom stay in the hospital for free, so unless we can do something…they're going to pull the plug on mom."

Naruto froze as he stared at his brother in horror. "They…can't do that!"

Kira's expression turned grim. "I know they can't, but do you honestly think they care about what we want?"

Naruto tried to see the bright side, but couldn't disagree with what Kira said. "What are we going to do then? I…I don't want to lose mom."

"We're not going to." Kira said determinedly as he showed him one of the papers he took from the filing cabinet. "What do you say about a change of scenery?"

Naruto looked at the paper and saw that it was a pamphlet, and the picture of a picturesque scene of a park was on the cover, the title being in English, but they'd taught a languages class at the Academy if someone got assigned an international mission. "'New York City,' hmm, sounds nice enough."

_(# Action Pack Issue 2: While Kira makes the plan to transfer their mother to New York, Naruto breaks the news to his teammates just as the Chunin exams arrive around the corner, making him come to a difficult decision. Leave with his family or stay with his friends?) _


	2. Chapter 2

_# Action Pack Issue 2_

_June 24, 2008, 9:45 am-Konoha Hospital_

Kira sat at the side of a bed with a red-haired woman on it, his eyes falling on the too short locks ending at her shoulders. He remembered it being ankle-length, but then one day he came in and the staff had sheared it off. He knew that when his mother woke up she was going to be pissed.

He looked down at the transfer papers and they're had been surprisingly little hassle from the medical staff, most of which _eagerly_ gave him the papers. He bitterly realized that they wanted him gone as much as he _wanted_ to leave. And because of the resignation form he'd signed, he'd be 'retiring' from his ninja career and wouldn't be marked a missing nin when he left.

Then he came to the obvious obstacle. He loved his brother, and he'd taken to leaving the village well so they're mother could get better treatment, but it was the 'when' they were coming back to the village that had presented the problem. He hadn't taken it well to giving up being a ninja after so long for working at becoming one when Kira had told them that they were _not_ coming back.

Naruto hadn't yelled at him, but he did give him a hurt look and excused himself from the breakfast table to 'take a walk' and think about it. Before he'd left though, Kira had offered another option: he could leave with their mother and Naruto could stay if he wanted to.

Granted, Kira didn't like that one, and neither did Naruto, but at least it'd make him think hard over what he wanted to do. Kira had already made his choice, and in hindsight and in the present situation, it was the best option. He wasn't about to let their mother die simply because the council didn't like her.

Kira looked back down at the transfer form in his hand and looked over the information before deeming it acceptable and headed down to the fax machine in the lobby. The people ignored him as he faxed the form and waited for the reply, but his attention was diverted to the blond boy walking into the entrance.

He'd told Naruto that he'd be here until ten, but he didn't think that he'd come here. Naruto hated hospitals even more than him.

"Kira-nii, I need to talk with you." He said looking at the ground.

Kira nodded and waited for the blond to continue.

And soon enough, Naruto did. "It's about the Chunin exams you told me about; they start tomorrow."

* * *

><p><em>Konoha Bridge, 9:30 am<em>

Naruto had taken a walk after hearing what Kira had told him at home. He agreed whole-heartedly that their mom should be taken somewhere that she'd be looked after, but he didn't like the fact he was gonna have to give up being something he'd worked so hard at.

He wasn't jealous of Kira's rank, or his control over his chakra, but he did find it unfair that his brother had such better control over his chakra than he did. Kira though had told him it was apparently in his gene pool as their mom had large chakra reserves as well.

Knowing that it was a genetic thing left him torn over whether this was a good thing or not.

He'd eventually stopped at the bridge to think when he saw his teammates walking up. "What are you doing here?"

"Kakashi-sensei told us to meet here, which you would have known if you'd stayed behind yesterday." Sakura snapped and looked like she wanted to hit him.

"I left because Kira-nii was going." Naruto said simply.

"Do you always follow your brother around?" Sasuke sneered.

"At least I know my brother would never abandon me." Naruto shot back hotly, and Sasuke scowled at him before looking away and glaring at the ground.

"Now what's going on here?" A male voice questioned.

"Sensei, you're here early." Sakura said amazed.

Kakashi rubbed the back his head. "Don't sound so surprised, I had to be on time to give you these." He said handing the three students a piece of paper each.

"What are these?" Sakura questioned.

"Those papers hold the date and time of the Chunin exams." Kakashi explained.

Naruto looked up in surprise and his expression became a little amazed. "The exams are tomorrow?"

Kakashi raised his one visible brow. "You know about it?"

Naruto nodded his head. "Hai, Kira-nii told me about what his was like and what you had to do."

Kakashi held up one finger and waved it in a conspiratorial gesture in front of Naruto. "Well no spoiling the surprise." He said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Naruto though seemed to realize that the exam was _tomorrow_. _'Oh no, that's when Kira-nii's taking Kaa-chan to New York.'_ He thought and his thoughts of advancement and making his brother proud flew out the window as they were replaced with hesitance and worry.

Sakura looked at Naruto expectantly as she put her hands on her hips. "Well, what are the exams about anyway?"

Naruto furrowed his brow in annoyance. "Didn't you hear Kakashi-sensei?" he asked, more so from the fact he had to think over whether or not he should tell his friends he was going to be leaving. He needed to talk to his brother, and remembered the brunet said he was going to be at the hospital filling out forms. "I gotta go, I'll be telling you both something later though. Here, at…" he paused for a moment. "Let's say 10:15 am." He said before jogging away.

Naruto disregarded Sakura yelling for him to come back and tell them now, but he kept on running, deftly dodging the villagers that gave him merely neutral glances and as he entered through the glass doors of the hospital, he lucked out upon finding his brother by the fax machine. "Kira-nii, I need to talk to you." He said glancing at the ground, but he knew better than to assume his brother was going to give a verbal reply.

His brother never spoke unless he had to after all. It was a quirk that had been frustrating to deal with when he was very young, but his brother also _listened_ to him. And he knew that his brother was ready to do that now. "It's about the Chunin exams you told me about; they start tomorrow."

Kira's expression creased slightly at that, the only emotion he'd show towards annoyance. He gestured for Naruto to follow and the blond did, all the way back to their mother's room. The blond looked toward the comatose redheaded woman and sighed, as he always did upon seeing her severely cut hair. The first time ever he'd seen it, it had been long, and he liked the color, even to the point of thinking of dying his own hair red to look more like her.

Kira though had shot that idea down as he didn't trust the dye products. He did though say that Naruto could change his hair color when he mastered the Transformation Jutsu.

Kira stopped at the desk by bed and picked up the papers, handing them to Naruto, who looked one over that was a resignation form for one Uzumaki Kira, and he noticed that the other form was also a resignation for, this one though was blank.

It took him a moment to realize what Kira was implying. "You want me to resign, don't you?" he asked softly.

Kira's expression didn't change. "This isn't about what I want; this is about what you want. I've always been there from day one to make the decisions for you, now it's your turn. As I said before, you can stay here, or you can come with us. It'll be your decision." His expression softened a little. "But I'll always be one call away."

Naruto remained silent as he thought over what Kira said. He knew Kira always kept his word, as when they were growing up, he'd make promises and go to great lengths to make them come true. Like giving him a normal birthday. That had been a hard order to fill, but he'd managed to do it, and he loved him all the more for it.

It also said just how much Kira trusted him with this decision. He'd stopped making more and more of Naruto's decisions for him as he'd entered the Academy, but stopped all together when he'd officially become a ninja. He'd didn't even object when his team got their first C-rank mission like Iruka-sensei had.

"I…I need to think about this." He said faintly and Kira nodded.

Naruto didn't know why, but he grabbed the second, blank form and walked out the room with it in hand.

* * *

><p><em>Konoha Bridge, 10:09 am<em>

Sakura waited on the bridge, looking down into the water as she morosely thought of better things she could be doing than waiting for information from _Naruto_ of all people, but while the blond wasn't the best source to get information from, his brother wouldn't lie to him about something like this.

The pink-haired girl felt something fierce stir in her chest. She knew, along with everyone else in the village, that the elder Uzumaki was only Naruto's adopted brother and a demon to boot, but she still couldn't help but feel a sense of jealously as she'd seen them interact back in the Academy.

When Naruto had passed his test, a miracle on itself, the brunet had merely patted him on the shoulder, but Naruto had looked so damn _happy_ that it made her realize that the pat on the shoulder simply alluded to a bigger celebration that no one else was privileged to see. She was sure that only Naruto ever saw the guy smiling.

She'd felt jealous for more than the iron-clad relationship those two had, but also for the fact that no matter what, the older boy always seemed to give Naruto everything he wanted. Naruto would tell Kiba or Choji about how his brother made him all these fantastic meals that actually didn't consist of ramen and take him out to eat whenever he wanted to go out.

Even her own parents wouldn't let her wouldn't buy her everything she wanted like Naruto's brother did. He'd talk about wanting one thing one day, and then the next day he'd have it, and so on and so forth to the point where it made Sakura despise him for having these things, even if it was just food-related.

The pink-haired girl looked up from the pond and spotted her dark-haired teammate, a blush covering her cheeks instantly. "Hello, Sasuke-kun! So you're here for Naruto's information too, huh?"

"Hn." The Uchiha grunted and leaned against bridge.

Sakura wondered if the boy was trying as aloof as Naruto's older brother before brushing it off; that brunet could never be as awesome as Sasuke-kun, he was just a poser.

She purposefully disregarded the fact the elder Uzumaki had been like this _first_.

Sakura looked past Sasuke to see the chatting members of Team 10, with the exception of Shikamaru, who was just staring lazily off into the distance. "Ino-Pig."

"Forehead." Ino said glaring at her rival and waved coyly at the Uchiha. "Hey Sasuke-kun."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted again.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?" Choji questioned.

"We're here because Naruto's going to tell us about the Chunin exams." Sakura replied huffing.

Ino laughed haughtily. "_Naruto?_ You're seriously desperate to take advice from him?"

Sakura bristled. "He said his brother told him about the exams and what to expect."

That got Ino to stop talking, and Shikamaru looked vaguely interested in the conversation. "His brother told him?" Ino asked tilting her head. "Hmm, maybe we'll stay then to hear this." She looked ahead and saw another blond approaching. "Oh look, here he comes now."

Sakura looked back and put her hands on her hips. "Well Naruto, what's going to happen in the Chunin exams?"

Naruto frowned as he looked at the extra additions. "I never said I was going to tell you about the Chunin exams, just that I had something to tell you."

Ino laughed harshly. "I can't believe you thought Naruto would know something!"

Sakura bristled as she glared at the girl. "Well you stayed after I said that it was about the Chunin exams."

Shikamaru sighed loudly. "This is such a drag, Naruto, is what you were going to say about the exams or not?"

The blond shook his head. "No."

"Right." Shikamaru replied before leaving, Choji following.

"Hey, get back here!" Ino yelled after them before glaring at Sakura and marching after her teammates.

"Well that was humiliating." Sakura growled and really wanted to smack Naruto on the head, but only restrained herself as she knew that after the blonde's brother saw her hit him, he'd likely ask, and Naruto of course would tell him. "What dumb thing did you want to say that could be used for more productive things than waiting around for you? I have life you know!" she snapped.

For the first time though, she noticed the paper that was clenched in one hand crinkle as his fist shook and Naruto's face became neutral. "I can't participate in the Chunin exams with you tomorrow."

Sakura laughed as she held her stomach and even Sasuke smirked. "That's it? We don't need you, Sasuke-kun and I can past just fine without you, right Sasuke-kun?" she asked beaming over at the Uchiha.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted before walking away.

"Wait for me, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted and followed after the boy, while she saw Naruto looking at the piece of paper in his hand, but thought little of it as she ran after her crush.

_#2 "Burning Bridges"_

_Hokage Tower, 11: 12 am_

"This wasn't an easy decision, but I hope you'll understand." Naruto said to the old Hokage.

Sarutobi looked over both resignation forms and sighed heavily. He'd lost what respect Kira had for him, and he had been determined to keep what respect Naruto had for him. He knew Kira would never believe him when he'd said that he had no choice. He really did have none as the Council, the civilians any way, had pressured him to fold on the free continual medical treatment that Uzumaki Kushina was allowed.

He knew for a fact that none of them wanted her awake because her temper transcended generations and they feared her, and the fact her children were mistreated certainly wouldn't help their case.

He truly did regret not doing more to help then, that's why he was letting them leave, whatever misgivings the council had about this were irrelevant as these forms were going right to acceptance. "You'll be able to leave tomorrow. That will give you time to say goodbye." He said more to Naruto than to Kira.

Naruto nodded and Kira just turned away as he walked back out the door without a word. "Thanks old man." The blond said brightly before following his brother, and noticed his dark expression. "Come on Kira-nii, you have to be cheerful. We're leaving tomorrow."

"You can be cheerful for the both of us." Kira retorted grimly. "I'll relax when we're away from this hell."

Naruto frowned at the slight against the village. He'd never liked the way Kira down talked the village, but he also knew that Kira was the way he was _because_ of this village. Had everyone not hated him or treated him like dirt, then he might not be so 'eager' to insult Konoha.

"So, what do we do until we go?" Naruto asked after they had left the Tower.

Kira looked down at him from the corner of his eye. "You heard the man, go say goodbye; I'll be at home packing the things we'll need." He said before flickering away.

Naruto sighed at his brother's sudden disappearance and continued walking on. He had no idea who to say goodbye to, as he was sure that his goodbye to the old man had been that meeting. He felt a sense of guilt stir in his chest. It really had been a difficult decision, but he was not going back on it.

Konoha would be just fine without him, and he knew that they had constantly tried to get rid of his brother; to the point where his idealism had stopped in favor of thinking it was just a horrible string of coincidences. Kira didn't believe in coincidences and it seemed that the same belief was starting to rub off on Naruto too.

He'd though about the factors he had to take into consideration with all the seriousness he expected of himself to be able to make his own choices now. The first were the people; he had lots of 'acquaintances,' but no real friends. And he thought about the fact Kira was the only one he _knew_ without a doubt would never hurt him in any way.

He might be a little emotionally distant, but his affection was still genuine.

The rest of the factors had simply been a pro-con deal as he thought about the village's view of them, and whether their departure would mean anything. The factors had all been eventually whittled down until only one thing really mattered.

What did _he_ want?

The answer was surprisingly easy to grasp after all the rationalization he thought about and found himself to be too analyzing, but in this case it wasn't a bad thing.

Simply put, his family was the one factor that he would always need. He'd always pick his family over anyone else.

After that it had been him just filling out the paper and telling Kira his decision.

Now he had to look for his teammates or someone he knew would relay the message. He looked around and as he passed the fence, he saw one part of the fence peel off and start following him. He sighed and decided to get it over with by telling his the boy first. "I know it's you Konohamaru, no rock is so square."

The 'rock' fell back to reveal three kids and Konohamaru grinned. "No fooling you, huh boss?"

Naruto rolled his eyes as he looked at the other two kids with him. "Who are they?"

"I'm Moegi, the sassiest girl in the Academy!" The redheaded girl said.

"And I'm Udon, the smartest." The boy with a perpetually wet nose said.

"And we're the Konohamaru Corps!" The three of them shouted.

Naruto smiled slightly and Konohamaru asked the obvious question, "What up's boss?"

"I'm leaving." Naruto said, his voice more blunt than he intended it to be.

Konohamaru didn't seem to understand the real meaning behind the words. "Oh? When are you coming back?" Naruto didn't answer and the young boy seemed to finally understand what the words meant. "You are coming back, right?"

Naruto shook his head sadly. "No, I'm not."

Konohamaru looked up at him in disbelief. "But what about everything you told me! What about your nindo?"

Naruto sighed as he thought about the answer. "Sometimes, something comes up that makes you face a difficult choice. I'm choosing what's best for me."

"So you're decision is just to leave?" Konohamaru asked in disbelief.

Naruto stared at him critically. "Konohamaru, it's my mother…"

"Big deal, that shouldn't make you want to leave!" Konohamaru retorted thoughtlessly.

Naruto froze as his face twisted up for a moment before going neutral. "You're seven, what do you know about any of what's going on?" he asked harshly. And while he knew that it was a bit unfair to be so hard on the kid, he was the one who undermined the importance his mother had in the blonde's life, even if she was in a coma.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" The female voice of his teammate asked.

Naruto glanced at her and decided that as long as he was 'saying goodbye'… "I'm leaving tomorrow."

Sakura stared at him before she started laughing. "You can't leave you idiot. If you do that you'll be marked a missing-nin."

"That's right, so you can't leave boss!" Konohamaru piped in.

Naruto decided not to dignify that with an answer. "Just tell the teme that I'm going." He knew that this was all he'd have to do, as word would spread around and everyone would know by tomorrow anyway.

* * *

><p><em>Restaurant District, 12: 30 pm<em>

Naruto's assumptions had been sadly spot on as the whole village now knew about him leaving, some speculating how much money would be put on his bounty, others wondering if the 'demon' was also leaving. The one person who was taking it harder than most though was the shy Hyuuga Hinata as she saw with her teammates eating lunch and having a team meeting, which had brought up the eventual subject of Naruto's upcoming departure.

"I thought that guy wasn't about giving up, and he plans on running at the first sign of trouble, and the Chunin exams are right around the corner." Kiba said shaking his head in disgust.

Kurenai frowned at the heir, as most of the Jonins had heard about Kira's plan to move his mother, a very wise decision considering the circumstances. "Do not speak of things that you do not understand, Kiba." She warned.

Kiba frowned back, but Hinata spoke up shyly. "Why…do you think he's leaving?"

"You are aware of the fact his mother is in a coma, correct?" she asked and they nodded. "He is leaving because the Council will no longer pay for her life support and his brother is moving them out." She explained.

Hinata couldn't fault Naruto for wanting to be with his family. "I hope he's happy wherever they go." She said quietly.

"I still don't get why his brother can't just leave Naruto here and go." Kiba grumbled.

"We can't comprehend their situation and therefore we have no say in the matter." Shino pointed out logically.

Kurenai gave the boy an approving nod before looking at Kiba. "He's right, imagine if that was your mother and you were Naruto's situation with Hana in Kira's. Would you let her leave with your mother if the Council was going to take her off life support?"

Kiba balked at the thought. "No way! I'd go with them…and…." He trailed off as he understood the reasoning behind Naruto's actions. He'd never believed the blond when he said he had a mother and that had frayed what little connection they had. And when he'd found out it was actually _true_, he had been to prideful to apologize.

"Well, at least his teammates will be there for us to beat." He said changing the topic.

Kurenai grimaced, but didn't reply to that. Since Naruto was 'out' as it were, the chances of his teammates being able to compete were gone.

* * *

><p><em>June 25, 1:30-International Airport<em>

"Don't be nervous." Kira said as they boarded the plane, their mother being looked over by the medical personnel from the New York General Hospital.

Naruto bit his lip and they took their seats. "But what about a home? Things? Money?"

Kira looked at him sardonically. "You don't honestly think I never thought of that, right?" he asked and Naruto flushed. "I managed to do a lot in a little while. We'll be staying in a place in Forest Hills, Queens. The hospital won't be that far away, but there is the matter of schooling."

Naruto let out a small whine, but the look from Kira silenced it. "Why though?"

"Because it is apparently the law to go to school for months on end and only have the summer months off." Kira replied dryly. "I will be going to school as well, if it makes you feel better."

Naruto thought it over for a moment. "Yeah, it does make me feel better." He nodded. "When would we have to start this schooling anyway?"

"In the fall." Kira replied.

Naruto smirked. "That gives is more than enough time to scout out our surroundings then."

Kira nodded in affirmative turned to look out the window. "And don't worry about our stuff; I didn't leave anything behind that you would miss."

Naruto nodded and took the Chunin exam paper out of his jacket as Kira leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes. He truly did appreciate everything Kira had ever done for him and though that the brunet deserved some rest. He looked down at his paper and ripped it in half.

_'I'm not a Konoha ninja; this doesn't mean anything to me anymore.'_ He thought, and couldn't help wondering how his teammates were doing on the exams.

* * *

><p><em>Konoha Ninja Academy, 1:35<em>

'I am sorry, but you can't compete unless all three of you are present, and when I found out Naruto had resigned from being a ninja, I got here to stop you from embarrassing yourselves.' Kakashi had said just before Sakura and Sasuke were about to go into the building.

The news had left them both shocked and embittered at their teammate for bailing on them, likely knowing full well that this would happen. It was just like Naruto to never take anything serious and always making such irrational decisions.

Or at least that's what Sakura thought, Sasuke's thought were darker and angrier.

Naruto had robbed him of the chance to become stronger and kill Itachi, and he would never forgive him for that. He wanted to sneer and call Naruto weak, but the effect wouldn't be the same knowing the dobe wasn't around to listen and probably already half-way around the world by now.

But because there were no specifics about where the blond was going, he had no idea the distance, he could already be there for all he knew.

Then came to the fact Naruto had left because he'd wanted to be with his family. That really did bring a scowl to the raven-haired boy's face. Why did Naruto get such a loving and supportive brother and a living, albeit comatose, mother? And the fact he was the late Yondaime's son just added salt to the wounds.

He would never _ever_ admit to being jealous of Naruto, but when he thought back to how his own brother had treated him and how Kira treated Naruto, the difference ticked him off. When his own brother would ditch him, he'd go out and spy on Naruto interacting with _his_ brother. He figured he'd been spotted more than a few times by the older boy because they always changed locations.

He knew he was spoiled, as the last Uchiha the villagers had given him everything he was entitled to, and he also knew that they'd continue to bend backwards to please him. But then he thought about how Naruto could be so nice and still be given everything he asked for from Kira.

His hatred turned to Kira as well as Naruto, as he'd deny ever saying it, but he'd demanded that Kira teach him to be stronger, and again, he'd deny the implication, treat him how he treated Naruto. The brunet had just stared at him coldly, before brushing him off and leaving the Uchiha with a bruised ego.

If he ever found either of them, he was going to make their lives hell.

_(# Action Pack Issue 3: As the Uzumaki brother's settle down in their new home, and they learn they have the most interesting choice of a neighbour. In Konoha, the shockwaves of the brother's departure takes its toll on the Sandaime.)_


	3. Chapter 3

_#Action Pack Issue 3_

_June 26, 2:49 pm-New York General Hospital_

Naruto watched his brother talk to the doctor about his mother's condition and how long she'd been comatose. The grim look the doctor had told even Naruto that the chances of her waking up were slim, but didn't say anything as he looked around the room.

He looked down at the reflection of his form on the shiny clean floor. He'd changed his appearance to make himself look more like his mother, which meant lighter skin and red hair, his whisker marks also being hidden behind the disguise. He wasn't stupid, like so many people thought; he'd just never been given enough of a chance to show what he was capable of doing. That and Kira always told him it was better to hold back least you lose your ace up the sleeve.

He'd be able to maintain his current form until they got to their new home. He looked up and was only marginally jealous of the fact the only thing Kira had to change was his eyes from orange to gray, and his tan skin to a pale tone. He saw his brother move away from the doctor and walk over to him, gesturing for them to leave.

"What'd the doc say?" Naruto questioned in Japanese as they got into a taxi. He could speak English just fine because of the language classes they held at the Academy, but he just felt more comfortable using their native tongue.

Kira though didn't seem to agree. "Naruto-kun, here, we have to speak English, only at home can we go back to speaking Japanese." He said and didn't look at all happy about this, but really, when _did_ he look happy about anything?

Naruto nodded reluctantly. "Yes, Kira-nii." He said in English. "What's our new home like?"

Kira pondered this for a moment before answering. "It's…quaint." He said finally. "It's certainly better than our apartment, that's for sure, but nothing like dad's estate."

Naruto once again felt the sliver of jealously cloud his mind. He'd only ever been in that house when he was a baby and his memory hadn't been developed enough to let him even remember it. "Well…it sounds nice." He said hesitantly.

Kira nodded absently as he stared out the windows. Anyone else would have mistaken the look for wonder, but Naruto knew better. His brother was trying to ingrain the images into his mind so he could have an easier time finding the hospital. Then again, Kira had always been a hard worker, it was the entire reason he'd been allowed to enter and pass the Chunin exams in the first place.

Everyone could hate and fear Kira for being a half-demon, but they couldn't deny that he was a good ninja. He wasn't 'prodigy' level good, but he was still very strong. And with everything that life's thrown at the brunet, Naruto expected nothing less from the older boy.

His thought trailed back to Konoha for a moment and he wondered how people were taking their departure, if they _noticed_ it anyway.

* * *

><p><em>Hokage Tower, 3:00 pm<em>

Sarutobi sat in his chair as he looked down at the two forms, and then at the destination of their choice. He got up and walked over the picture of the Yondaime and pulled it back to reveal a vault. He unlocked it and placed the forms inside before closing it and used a small fire Jutsu to lit the destination on fire and let it burn to ashes. _'At least now no one will be able to find them and try to drag them into our messes.'_ He thought as he knew that something like this wouldn't stay a secret.

Especially since Kira was the only demon, half or not, associated with a Hidden Village. Well, the boy had never _liked_ that of course, but he had done it to ensure no one would be able to attack his brother. It was a rule that unfortunately many didn't follow.

He heard the latches on his window open and someone step inside. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was. "Hello, Jiraiya."

The white-haired man nodded, even though the old Hokage couldn't see it. "Sensei." He returned. "I've been hearing some interesting Intel from my spies that a certain half-demon has left Konoha. Any chance that this is just a misunderstanding and Kira is still in his apartment?"

The Sandaime sighed as he felt his age catch up with him and he sat back down in his chair. "No, it's not a misunderstanding. They both handed in their resignations and left." He replied. "I knew this couldn't be contained as the Chunin exams started, but what have you gathered from the other Elemental Nations?"

"Mizu couldn't care less as their still in the midst of a civil war, Iwa is just tickled pink that this village lost its trump card but don't seem ready to do anything. There's nothing from the new village, Sound, but both Suna and Cloud have shown at least some interest in where he went." Jiraiya explained and paused for a moment. "Where _did_ they go?"

"Someplace that they won't be persecuted for simply existing." Sarutobi retorted tersely.

"Damn it Sensei, _why_ did you let them leave? It's dangerous for them out there." Jiraiya replied.

"Not as dangerous as it was for them _here_." Sarutobi retorted. "Kira-san was the only one who did the right thing all those years ago by sticking with Naruto."

Jiraiya flinched back at that. "I couldn't take care of them; they would have been in even more danger if they had been with me, Tsunade doesn't like the village and left as soon as she could after she saw that Kira and Naruto were still alive. And Kakashi was too young to be taking care of any kids."

"So was Kira-san. And _he_ raised Naruto by himself." Sandaime replied.

Jiraiya sighed heavily. He remembered seeing the hope in the four year olds eyes die that day and hate began to cloud them as he turned them away. He's always thought that they wouldn't be mistreated, clinging to some false hope of his own that his student's wish would be fulfilled.

In this case, it showed him just how much his negligence had cost him.

The door opened and a Chunin came into the room, bowing to the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, the Council is having an emergency assembly and you are being requested to be there."

The old man let out a sigh himself as he stood from his seat and paused as he stopped beside his student. "Because of our failure, we can only hope that they have a better life now that they are free of this place." He said before continuing on.

Jiraiya thought that over as he stared down at the pile of ashes at the bottom of the picture of the Yondaime, but looked away from the photo out of guilt as he thought about how the man must be rolling in his grave or cursing him right about now.

* * *

><p><em>Casino, 4:30 pm<em>

Tsunade stared down at her winnings, a frown coming over her face. _'I never win unless something bad happens_.' She thought and was about to leave when a masked person who was clearly not an ANBU approached her. She tensed as she readied herself for a fight just in case.

The masked person only handed her an envelope. "From Jiraiya-sama." The person said in a gravelly tone and she warily accepted it, the person's business done and they left.

Tsunade looked down at the envelope and was about to throw it away before humoring Jiraiya and looked at it. What she read shocked her. Minato and Kushina's boys had left Konoha and their current whereabouts was unknown. She unwilling thought back to those large orange eyes Kira had that looked up at her pleadingly as he begged her not to abandon them too all those years ago.

But she and Shizune had left the next day, and she had forced herself not to give Naruto or Kira a second thought.

They'd be okay, she'd tried to assure herself at the time, but there had been a hollow feeling behind the words as she _knew_ that it wasn't going to happen and they wouldn't be okay. She knew how fickle the villagers could be, they had turned on Kushina just the same when they found out that she had been the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki at the time.

As much as she detested the idea, she knew she had to go back to Konoha and get to the bottom of this.

* * *

><p><em>Forest Hills, 4:00 pm<em>

"Wow, this place _is_ much better than our old apartment." Naruto said as he watched Kira put the pictures of Minato, Kushina, and Kira's birth mother onto the fireplace mantle. He looked at the picture of the woman with long brown hair and orange eyes and couldn't help but notice that Kira looked more like her, but since neither of them knew what Kyuubi looked like in his human form, they really couldn't be sure on that part.

But Kira obviously didn't like to think about it, so Naruto wouldn't mention it.

He knew that the woman had died when Kira was three and Naruto's own parents had taken the then young child in because the woman had been like his parent's friend and they had still treated her like family when she'd had Kira. He only knew this history because Kira told him it and he knew that Kira didn't like to talk about the past all that much, he'd just get depressed afterwards; so he didn't take lightly of what he was told.

They were about to drop their disguise forms when they heard a knock at the door and glanced at each other.

"I'll get it." Naruto said going over to the door and opened it.

_#3 "Meet The Parkers"_

"Hi there, I'm Peter Parker, you must be the new neighbour." A brown-haired teenager wearing a white long sleeved shirt and blue over shirt and brown cargo jeans said cheerfully.

"I'm _one_ of the new neighbours." Naruto retorted wittily and noticed the container. "What's with the container, you like the welcome wagon or something?" he joked.

The older boy just smiled sheepishly. "Would this seem less lame if I said I was?"

"Not really." Naruto replied smirking.

Peter shrugged and held the container out to the 'redhead'. "My Aunt May caught wind that we were getting new neighbours and wiped a batch of cookies."

Naruto glanced briefly at the fireplace where Kira was still standing and caught his eye, the brunet waving it off and he accepted the container. "Tell your aunt thanks, and I'll be sure to bring this back over." He said cheerily and remembered that he had yet to introduce himself. "And where are my manners, I'm…" he paused for a moment and he remembered that introducing yourself was different here as the surname went after your first name. "Naruto Uzumaki, and my brother Kira." He said using his free hand to gesture to the brunet.

"Hi there." Peter said to the other brunet, his smile faltering when all he got was wave off.

Naruto quickly did damage control. "Don't take it too personally, he does that with everyone; doesn't talk that much."

"I'll remember that." Peter mumbled as he put his hands in his pockets. "So, if you don't mind me asking, are you Asian?" he questioned.

Naruto stared at him and even Kira paused in his own work to see what his brother would do. "Um, _yes_, why would you think otherwise?"

Peter rubbed the back of his next sheepishly after he took one hand out of his pocket. "It's just that…you don't _look_ it, I mean he does," he said with a small jerk of the head in Kira's direction, "but, you…"

"It's the hair, isn't it?" Naruto questioned dryly. Peter nodded, his expression growing more and more embarrassed. "Don't worry; you're probably not the only person who's going to ask that once they hear what my name is."

"But they'd probably have more tact and not end up with their foot in their mouth." Peter mumbled.

Naruto felt himself smile in spite of the faux pas. This guy really did seem embarrassed over his mistake, so he decided not to get angry over something that probably _was_ going to happen a lot. He'd be damned though if he didn't think it wasn't going to get annoying though.

But that had to happen. "Don't worry, seriously." Naruto assured him.

"Well, I'd better let you get back to your unpacking." Peter said chuckling nervously.

"It was nice meeting you." Naruto said and Peter called back the same phrase as the brunet walked back to the house right beside theirs. "So, what do you think?" Naruto asked his brother.

Kira glanced out the window and his voice held a touch of sarcasm. "Our neighbours."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Kira-nii, be nice. That's all I ask."

* * *

><p><em>Council Room, 3:10<em>

It was only after the Sandaime sat down at the head of the raised dais that the commotion started, mostly from the Civilian side of the room, which was ironic since they had actually wanted to pull the plug on Kushina in the first place.

"Quiet down." He said in a gravelly tone and they reluctantly piped down. "Now, what is this meeting about?"

"That the Uzumaki brats have fled the village!" One merchant shouted. "Every major elemental nation knows that the Kyuubi's spawn has left, they could be building forces as we speak!"

Sarutobi sighed heavily and once again wished for a drink. "Kira and Naruto-san both resigned from the village rooster, taking all their possessions with them to an undisclosed location." Feeling rather vindictive about the situation they brought upon themselves, he poured salt in the wounds by added, "And it was this council's callous decision to stop the life support for their mother, one you all agreed to."

There were some uncomfortable shifts as they clearly did not want to be reminded of that.

Nether the less, the old Hokage continued. "This village has tried to cleanse its hands of them for some time, and now they have done the same to us, it is rather ironic don't you think?" he paused and when none of them spoke up, he carried on; he had never been able to stand up properly for the Uzumaki's before, but he was doing it now. Even if they'd never know that. "This village didn't lose two weapons; it lost the two children of our previous leader and his dear wife, the very same wife they left to make sure continued on living. The very same one that this council was about to murder simply because you all feared what she'd do should she ever wake."

Sarutobi paused once more, and the faces of the council became more and more distorted. They _really_ didn't want to think about the fact that a woman who'd grown up to be one of the fiercest Kunoichi would have more than likely killed them for trying to kill _her_ and her children.

"Is there anything someone would like to add?" he questioned and stared them all down. No one spoke. "If that's all then, I'll be going to see how the Chunin exams are panning out." He said before rising from his seat, his old bone creaking as he walked out of the room and saw his student waiting outside.

"What are you going to do now, sensei?" Jiraiya questioned.

"I'm going to watch the exams, and then I'm going to announce my retirement." Sarutobi said.

Jiraiya looked at the old man sharply. "What, why would you do that?"

"I'm too old Jiraiya, and this ordeal has told me just how precious time is." The Sandaime replied. "Ever since that night twelve years ago, I've taken time for granted. And ever since that night I've deluded myself into thinking that the village would come to accept Kira and Naruto _because_ they were Minato's sons, but it never came, and now they're gone." He sighed and his features seemed to age rapidly. "I'm not about lose what precious time I have left worrying about what could have been, but I'm going to spend it to the fullest by relaxing and spending time with my grandson."

* * *

><p><em>Uzumaki Residence, 6:00 pm<em>

"Naruto, stop eating all those cookies, you'll spoil your appetite." Kira said flatly from his spot in front of the stove and frying up some of the pork chops he'd had stored inside one of the storage scrolls until he could find a job here that would hire a teenager since this place was apparently pickier about who they hired than in Konoha.

Not that they ever hired him for anything there either.

"Aw, come on." Naruto pouted, but Kira had built up an immunity and his brother just stared stoically back at him. "Fine." He huffed, but took the still remaining cookies out and put them on a napkin. "You can take the container back after your finished cooking." He said cheerily.

Kira grimaced as he looked down at the pan. "Swell."

Naruto smirked for a moment as another thought came to him. "Where did you learn to cook anyway? From mom?" he asked before he could stop himself from adding that part.

"Kaa-chan couldn't make anything other than ramen." Kira replied swiftly as strained look started to seep onto his face whenever he talked about the past. "Otou-san was the one who showed me before…" he trailed off faintly and Naruto didn't press him for him to continue.

Naruto stared nervously down at his empty plate and kept quiet until dinner was served. "You could be a chef." He said abruptly.

Kira paused as he was about to take a bite out of his food and stared at Naruto. "A chef?" he questioned and since he wasn't a ninja anymore, he was going to have to find something else to do. "I do have hospital bills to pay until mom wakes up." He mused.

Naruto could see that his brother was at least considering the idea and he was all for encouraging him to make the best of his talents. "Yeah, you're a really good cook. Anyone takes a bite out of your teriyaki chicken and they'll hire you on the spot."

"But I only know how to make Japanese meals, and I doubt that I can make anything made here." Kira replied dubiously.

Naruto put a hand to his chin. "Well, if you can't get a job, maybe you can just use your luck to win some money until you're able to take some class that offers cooking or something."

"Or something." Kira repeated thoughtfully and nodded his head. "Alright, I'll think about it." He relented and began eating his dinner.

Naruto silently cheered as he managed to get his brother to be more sociably, even if it didn't seem like that to the brunet. He offered the napkin to Kira. "Cookie?" he asked smiling brightly.

Kira finished up his dinner and took one of the chocolate chip cookies and had to admit that it was good. "I'm taking the container back now." he said grabbing the box and left through the front door and walked across the lawn to the house next door and was confused for a moment about what to do before steering himself and knocking on the door.

A moment later the door opened to reveal an elderly woman with glasses and Kira held out the empty container. "Oh," she said as she took the container back, "did you eat them all up already?"

"No, we still have some left." Kira answered neutrally.

"Well did you enjoy them?" The woman questioned with a smile.

"My brother liked them very much, and…" Kira paused before adding in a more polite tone, "thank you for your generosity."

"It was no trouble at all." The woman replied waving it off.

"I…I must be getting back home now." Kira said as he was starting to feel awkward, the woman's warm countenance reminding him painfully of his own mother.

"I see, enjoy your stay." The woman replied before closing the door.

Kira began walking back to his new home, but stopped half way and glanced back, his earlier opinion of the neighbours coming back to mind, but this time with a softer edge in his mind. '_Our new neighbours._'

_(# Action Pack Issue 4: As Kira searches for a job, Naruto gets caught up in a super villain battle between a certain web slinger and a thrill seeker, the end result further changing the course of canon history.) _


	4. Chapter 4

_# Action Pack Issue 4_

_June 27, 11:13 am-Konoha Gates_

The men guardian entrance to the village were surprised to see none other than the Slug Princess, her apprentice and pet pig marching down toward them, and while they didn't want to incite her wrath, they still had a job to do. "Identification and papers, ma'am?" One guard asked.

Tsunade paused and she flicked the questioning guard in the forehead and sent him flying back. "There's your identification." She said shortly as she continued on walking.

Shizune said a hasty apology before hurrying to catcher up to her teacher. "Tsunade-sama, was that necessary?"

"We're here to get to the bottom of this whole thing, which does not mean I have to be pleasant with these people." Tsunade answered shortly as they continued onward to toward the Hokage Tower, her thoughts returning back to the letter she'd received.

Kira and Naruto were gone, left, and no one knew where they went. That was the only reason she'd even set foot in this place again. She felt the remnants of guilt stirring as she thought about the fact that while Naruto didn't remember her, Kira clearly did and knew that on the chance they ever crossed paths he would _not_ be happy to see her.

They stormed up the Hokage Tower and she ignored the shocked secretary and slammed the door off its hinges. "Sensei, where the hell are those kids?" she shouted angrily.

Sarutobi looked unconcerned with the fact he was now missing a door as his voice remained as calm as ever. "Hello Tsunade, how are you?"

Tsunade scowled at him. "Can't complain." She said grudgingly. "Now answer the question, where are Kira and Naruto?"

"Why would you be concerned with them? You never were before." Sarutobi knew it was a low blow, but this had been coming for a long time for _all_ of them.

Tsunade flinched back and Shizune grimaced as she held back from entering the room. "I couldn't take them." She said as the anger was replaced with sadness. "I tried to convince myself that they would be okay. But they weren't were they?"

"They weren't." The Hokage agreed softly. "We all turned our backs on them, and they acted accordingly to do what was necessary to save their mother."

"Where did they go?" Tsunade repeated.

"That I cannot say." Sarutobi replied wearily.

"Can't or won't?" Tsunade questioned as the fire started to return to her voice.

"Both." Sarutobi said. "Their location is the last thing I'd ever give up; I betrayed Kira's trust in me once, and I will not do that again to Naruto." He said putting his hands on the desk. "What I'm not able to comprehend is why now of all times you or Jiraiya would come here and ask about them both now. You never did before."

Tsunade grimaced. "Guilt." She answered finally. "I felt guilty. I thought about how I turned my own back on those two when Kira begged us to take them with us and to not abandon them too. I'll also admit I'm rather terrified that when Kushina wakes up she'll come after our heads."

"When?" Sarutobi raised a brow.

"Kushina was never once to let an injury get in her way. If she can come out a coma, then it will be soon. I just know it." Tsunade said and shuddered lightly. "And when that day comes…"

* * *

><p><em>Sake Bar, 1:45<em>

"So how are your students taking missing out on the exams?" Asuma questioned as he and the other Rookie 9, or rather 8 now, Genins questioned over a drink of Sake.

"They're…not doing well, Sasuke isn't anyway." Kakashi replied. "Sakura, I'm not exactly sure what she's doing, but I've Sasuke cursing Naruto for leaving and holding him back."

"You knew Kira, didn't you?" Kurenai questioned. "Before Naruto was assigned to your team right?"

"Yes, I knew him, but let's just say his hatred for me was quite justified." Kakashi answered with a grimace behind his mask.

"No, kidding." Another voice cut in as a purple-haired woman in a trench coat said walking up to them. "That kid would throw kunai and shuriken at you picture in the Bingo book for target practice." She mocked brushed a tear away from her eye. "I trained him so well."

"More like made him crazier." Asuma muttered.

"What was that?" Anko questioned dangerously and there was no rely, everyone having learned long ago that even when Kira had stopped being her Genin student she still defended him. "That's right." Her expression turned sad for a moment. "I'm sure gonna miss him, this damn place driving him away." She spat before taking another gulp of her drink and going for another refill.

Kakashi had barely touched his drink as he thought back to the Uzumaki's as well, the news now having fully hit him. They had _left_. Resigned even and they weren't coming back. Kira had never made it any secret about just how much he hated Konoha and would have liked nothing more than to leave, or optimistically see it burned to the ground.

Naruto also knew about this, but he loved his brother, anyone could see that, and despite how standoffish Kira acted, he loved Naruto just as well; to the point where it became a paternal type of affection. Kakashi knew that his sensei would be disappointed in him, as would his two teammates, as Rin had liked Kira and Obito saw him as a younger brother.

He'd been angry at the time that they had survived and his teacher hadn't and had wanted nothing to do with them. He'd left them to the wolves and he didn't care.

But after the years had gone by he'd started to realize that his own hate was unjustified as they had never done anything wrong that day. He knew Kira would do more than just slap his hand away if he tried to reconcile with the teen, but there had still been Naruto. He'd been almost desperate to make a good impression on him, but once he'd actually seen Naruto it had hurt too look the boy who looked like a mix of his parents.

It hadn't helped that when Kira heard about the team settings; he'd barged into a meeting and demanded that Kakashi _not_ be his sensei. His exact words had been 'pick someone else, _anyone else_, just not _him_.' Those words had stung, as the little boy who'd used to look up at him with those large childish eyes had now looked at him such vitriol.

He'd messed up with Naruto, and he'd never stood a chance with Kira. He'd let them both down and now they were both gone.

* * *

><p><em>New York, 2:03<em>

Kira walked down the street, resume in hand as he thought about his failed attempt at trying to get a job. This had been his third try. He wondered what he was doing wrong; was it because of his age, his lack of experience, or because he couldn't fry a hamburger and fries?

He'd given his brother a check to deposit into the bank account he'd also set up for the boy and while it wasn't much, he'd still be able to have something in case of an emergency. His brother had told him that he was going to visit their mother beforehand while Kira was out stuck getting repeatedly shot down for a job.

Kira could cook, he _knew_ he could, but he just couldn't make the food they wanted. If he couldn't find a job he'd stick with the scratch tickets and letting his luck do the work. He walked past a vending machine and a bottle of water suddenly dropped out and he picked it up before shrugging.

With how much walking he was going to be doing today, it was wise to stay hydrated.

* * *

><p><em>First National Bank, 2:35<em>

Naruto was bored, and he generally didn't have much of an attention span, but this was important. Kira was trusting him with _money_. His brother had always budgeted what money they had and never used more than was necessary, and even if it meant stealing the food he always made sure he was fed.

Naruto never really condoned Kira having to resort to stealing, finding the people who ripped them off being pranked by yours truly was much more satisfying; but Kira was different like that. He really was a good brother, even if others had condemned him _long_ before he stole anything or the like, and they were lucky stealing was the _only_ thing he did.

Besides, his brother only _rarely_ did it and stopped all together in the recent years.

Naruto pulled his necklace out of his shirt and glanced down at the picture, feeling a smile spread across his face before he was about to move up in the line before the doors shot off their hinges and a female form in a metallic outfit came metaphorically bouncing in, a manic grin on her face and a mask obscuring her face. _'Something tells me this isn't dress up day._'

The woman pulled out a sack from a belt at her waist and held it out to the person nearest to her. "Fill it up," The metal device at her wrist suddenly form into a bolt of energy and she hurled it at the ground, the floor creating a large dent, "or else." She hissed.

The man that had caught the bag moved around in a terrified manner as people, also cowed by the power this woman seemed to wield and the manic look on her face, put their money or jewelry into the sack as the woman reach around the glass of the teller's post and a wire connected with the computer, the files being hacked the money being transferred.

When the terrified man reached Naruto, the boy threw the check in, but tried to hide his locket, only to a bolt of energy shot just short of his feet and both he and man jerked back and the woman was looking at him and she wagged a finger from her free hand. "Uh, uh, uh, I saw that." She said and was about to throw another bolt when Naruto reluctantly took his locket off and put the necklace into the bag, the woman then turning her attention back to the computer.

When the transfer was complete, the woman grinned again. "Stealing the money out the bank is so blasé, it's all about computers now." she said musingly as she was handed the bag of stolen good, but the bag was pulled out of her hand by…webbing?

Naruto looked up in surprise, and his eyes widened even further as he saw a red and blue form on top of the bank's entrance and the webbing came from his wrist somehow, with a mask over his face and the eyes blanked out. "Then you won't mind giving these people back their stuff, metal head."

The woman scowled as she threw a bolt of energy at the man, but he moved to the side, the previous spot he'd been in's wall shot through and the debris fell onto the floor. "No fair, I stole it fair and square!"

"Then all the more reason to give it back." The red and blue costumed man quipped.

The woman's scowl deepened as the metal device on her other wrist produced the same bolt of energy and she struck one against the other into the man's direction and the blast caused a wide radius of damage on the wall and the debris that fell was larger and was about to fall onto the hostages.

The man let go of the bag to shoot out more webbing from his wrist to create a net that stopped the falling debris and the woman ran up to the bag and was about to make her escape when the man suddenly turned around and webbed her back. "Oh no you don't!"

The woman merely paused before grabbing the webbing and pulling it back and that sent the costumed man flying across the room and out the hole in the wall. The woman laughed as she seemed to run at super speed and disappeared from sight.

Naruto looked at the surrounding damage and had only one thought. _'Why did we come to this particular city again?'_

* * *

><p><em>Uzumaki Residence, 4:00<em>

Kira noticed Naruto arriving when he walked in through the door and saw his expression was distinctly downcast. "What's wrong, did they not accept the check?"

Naruto looked up at him startled, he could live without the money, but he couldn't let his brother know that he lost the locket he gave him. "No, but I'll be going tomorrow, there was a…mishap that caused the bank to close. So, how did the job search go?" he asked deftly changing the subject.

Kira looked down at the packet out chicken he was taking out and setting on the frying pan. "It didn't go as well as I had hoped. I couldn't cook what they were asking, but I did get my share of free beverages from the vending machines."

"Can't I have one?" Naruto asked cheerily.

Kira gestured to the fridge. "Go ahead. I did win 100 dollars from a scratch ticket, so it was enough to let me buy groceries for this week. Tomorrow I go out and try again for a job."

Naruto nodded as he looked down at the table and noticed the small packets of plant seeds and the radio. "You bought these?"

"For you." Kira answered tossing the empty package away and washed his hands before grabbing a tong out of the drawer. "I bought them so they'd give you something to focus on; and I know how much you like music." He said turning to the stove.

Naruto picked up the packet before grabbing Kira around the waist and hugged him. "Thank you, Nii-chan."

"I'm cooking here, boy." Kira reprimanded, but his voice wasn't harsh and he used one hand to briefly pat his brother on the back.

Naruto pulled back, the smile still on his face before he took the things up to his room, already thinking of when he could start planting.

_# 4 "Black Fox, Part 1"_

Naruto walked into his room and put his things down on the desk, his attention diverting to his neck where the locket no longer laid and he felt a rage start to swell in him. His brother had given him that! It was the only picture they had a whole family, and that woman took it.

His eyes moved over to his clothing pile and noticed that some of them were darker than the rest and his eyes narrowed in thought. He couldn't tell Kira about what had happened, so he'd do something about it himself. He walked over to the pile, but not before absently turning on his radio and began to pull out several articles of clothing and he set them down on his bed before making his way back down stairs.

"Kira-nii, do you think I'm any good at my jutsus?" he asked.

Kira paused for a moment before going back to frying the chicken. "Yes, you're already good at the tree climbing exercise and you're coming along nicely with the water walking. And I hope you'll understand that it may be a bit before I can teach you any new jutsus until I'm done settling our registration for our schools."

Naruto nodded, noticing that his brother hadn't answered his question. "But what about my jutsus?" he repeated.

"Yes, you're good, but keep working at them, practice makes perfect after all." Kira said flatly, but his words didn't have less meaning to them.

"I know." Naruto said absently. "And, um, the doctors said that mom's brainwaves are starting to speed up, they said it was a good thing, is that true?"

Kira nodded. "Yes, Tsunade told me about this type of stuff and from what I read from medical books over the years. It means mom is going be waking up soon."

Naruto felt his heart swell and the urge to go get his locket back came back stronger than ever.

* * *

><p>Naruto pulled the black hood over his head, his form having gone back to his original one and pulled the black gloves over his hands, the metal plates on the back glinting from the light in the room. He pulled the breathable fabric over his nose and turned off the light in his room, having told Kira he was going to be up here and going to bed afterwards and wouldn't be seeing him until tomorrow morning.<p>

He's worded it in a way that wasn't a said like a lie, but he still felt guilty. He stared at the reflection staring back at him from the window. He was clad in a black and orange sweater and black pants, ninja sandals on his feet. He thought he looked kind of badass in these clothes before gathering his resolve and opened the window and jumped out.

He'd didn't need to pump any chakra to his legs anymore as Kira's on the side training from when he was younger was starting to pay off. His brother would get him to jump from small beams to another and further in space so his leg muscles wouldn't wear out and wouldn't need to waste chakra needlessly.

He landed on the next roof over as he remembered the radio coming on with breaking news that the woman who'd robbed the bank earlier had just struck again. He had the general area he need to go to and kept leaping from building to building and used the body flicker Kira taught him and appeared on a building he was too far away to jump to and landed on the roof before sprinting off again.

His teammates had never been interested in learning what he knew, and while he knew he didn't have much of an attention span, he was getting better and he really could be smart when he focused on one task at a time, but he had just found the Academy reading material to be too boring and had complained about how it was supposed to help them in real life.

Give him practical work over that any day of the week.

It had been hard at first, but he'd eventually gotten the body flicker down and several assorted jutsus as well as the Shadow Clone one, his personal favorite by far. He heard the woman's manic laughter and scowled under the mask and followed the sound. He saw the woman running speedily through the streets and saw the red and blue form swinging from building to building as he also followed after the woman.

Naruto still didn't know either of their names, but he was willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume he was trying to stop the woman too as he tried to do earlier. Naruto added some chakra to his legs and sped up enough so that when he jumped down he was little more than a black blur and tackled the woman right off her feet.

She looked genuinely startled before tossing him off and got up, only to get wrapped in webbing as the man landed on the wall. "Alright, lady, why don't we make this easy and you just give up?"

The woman grinned as a bolt of energy cut through the webbing. "Why won't I want to stop? This is such a thrill ride!"

"A stupid thrill?" Naruto yelled. "You've been stealing stuff because of a stupid thrill?"

The woman sniffed haughtily. "Don't knock it 'til you've tried it Whiskers."

Naruto bristled as he resisted the urge to touch his birthmarks and instead glared at her. "Where's your loot?"

The woman's grin widened as she sent bolts at them both. "Why, so you can take away my trophies? I don't think so, besides, I'm thinking of melting down all that pretty jewellery and making a real trophy to me, the living embodiment of action!"

Naruto felt his blood begin to boil when she started to describe how she was going to melt it down. "You will do no such thing!" he snarled and he shot forward in a black blur, his punches flying, but the woman matched him blow for blow, but she was just one moment faster and punched him against a wall.

The blond felt his healing factor starting to kick in as he glared at the woman and she turned away, only to get caught in a web line. She chuckled sardonically. "Didn't we learn our mistake from last time?" she asked grabbing the web line and pulled, only to get a crate pulled back at her instead.

"Why yes I did." The red and blue costumed man said clinging to the wall by his hands and feet and looked over at Naruto. "Now kid, why don't you run along and let the grown-ups handle this."

Naruto scowled back at him. "A kid am I? Well who was the one who tackled her in the first place?"

The man tilted his head, and even with the mask he seemed thoughtful. "Okay, point taken." He admitted shrugging and had to jump up one level on the wall as the woman sent a concussive blast at him from her metal wrist devices.

"And what you we call you, the amazing Metal Head?" The man joked.

The woman smirked as she fired more energy bolt at them. "The name's Joystick."

"How is that any better than this spider guy's suggestion?" Naruto questioned dubiously, only to dodge a bolt sent at him for his troubles.

"Hey, it's not 'spider guy,' it's Spider-Man." The man said sounding offended.

"I don't care what either of your names are, you're both gonna be dead in a minute!" Joystick shouted, looking a lot less manic and angrier.

Naruto figured it was the fact she hadn't managed to get away yet. He didn't want to do this, but he needed to find out where his locket was, so he whirled around to the spot where Spider-Man was and threw a flash bomb at him.

Joystick used Spider-Man's distraction and knock him off the wall by another concussive blast and hit Naruto with one as well that sent them both flying back. "Thanks kid." She said grinning again before she ran down the streets at a superhuman level.

Naruto felt himself get picked up by the front of his shirt and he was pretty sure Spider-Man was glaring at him from under that mask. "Why did you do that?" he snapped.

Naruto glared right back at him. "Because she stole something from me and I want it back."

"Then why'd you let her get away?" Spider-Man questioned shaking Naruto lightly.

"Because I _needed_ her to get away; who knows where she keeps her stash and no one may ever find it." Naruto replied angrily and slapped the man's hand off his shirt.

"You're in way over your head kid, go home." Spider-Man said before letting out a web line and swinging off.

Naruto watched him leave, and despite the indignation at being dismissed so easily because of his age, he reluctantly knew the man was right. The only reason he was even doing this was to get his necklace back, but while letting the bad guy get away wasn't the best move, it was the most practical.

He jumped off and headed home, hoping he'd be able to follow the woman the next time she struck. And then he'd be ready for her.

_(# Action Pack Issue 5: As Naruto waits to retrieve his locket from the thrill seeker Joystick, a ripple effect begins to take place in Konoha, and the oblivious Kira is finishing up their settlement in New York with their regristration into the school system of Midtown Elementary/Middle school and Midtown High.)_


	5. Chapter 5

_# Action Pack Issue 5_

_June 28, 12:30-New York General_

Kira sat down on the chair beside the prone form of his mother and took out a pen and started to fill out the information sheets he'd gathered from Midtown Middle/Elementary and Midtown High schools for him and Naruto. He'd specifically picked those two because they were nearby each other and he'd know where Naruto would be should an emergency happen.

He could be called overly protective, but with all the loss in his life, he was determined to keep what he still had of his family intact. It was one of the reasons he'd gotten so angry that the Konoha Council tried to take Kushina off life support, that and she was still his mother. He might have had his birth mother before her, but it didn't give the attachment any less meaning.

Back then he was just happy to be around people who treated him like he was normal.

He'd asked the principals of the schools what the curriculum was like and what he heard didn't make him so averse to going. They had P.E, and he knew Naruto would do very well in that class. His brother had asked him why he'd never tried for the Jonin exam since he was stronger and trained very hard to keep his chakras balanced. Kira had then very plainly told him that he liked having the rank he did because then no one could force him to go on any high ranking missions and while he found the D-ranks he had to do degrading, he was still around should Naruto need him.

He'd taught Naruto what the Academy wouldn't and helped him on his Taijutsu forms, but he himself had learned what he could from watching Kushina and Minato and reading any material he could and using what was learned in a practical sense. He knew his brother never liked the Academy textbooks or their history lessons because he never saw them having any practical use. Kira shared these sentiments and when he helped Naruto review the work he only made him read parts of the material that _could_ be used later on in field work.

He knew he'd probably have a harder time in school than Naruto because the boy was still young and a lot less jaded and cynical than he was. That and he'd been out of school for a while and he'd spent so much time as playing a teacher to his brother that it would also be hard to listen to the lessons, an then there was his problem with authority in general.

In a nutshell he thought all adults were useless. The only exceptions had Anko (because she had known how awful the village was), his birth mother, Kushina, and Minato (because they were all his parents, and at the young age he honestly never saw them as 'adults' per say).

His thoughts turned to another aspect of school that had his mask crack to allow a grimace to mar his face. His brother had yet to discover girls and was relieved to find that Naruto had only pursued and taken the abuse she dished out at him without justification because he wanted a friend rather than any real romantic attachment. He knew that this wasn't going to last long though as he'd be in a class where no one would know him and no prejudice against him some girls might show interest in him.

He was severely dreading the day Naruto did discover girls as he had no expertise in that area what so ever.

Kira had been in a class of older kids and none of the girls looked at him with anything other than wariness or disgust. And the only woman he'd spent any extensive amount of time with was his teacher. He wasn't against the idea of being with someone, but he would admit that he himself probably wasn't what any girl would want.

Kira knew all too well about how socially awkward he was, as he wasn't a people person, and it showed how he acted around them.

The brunet paused in filling out the information and looked over at his comatose mother. "Kaa-chan, if you could see us now, would be proud or not?" he asked sardonically but expected no answer as he went back to the sheets in front of him.

He never noticed the pale hand move an inch toward him.

_# 5 "Black Fox, Part 2"_

_Uzumaki Residence, 1:00_

Naruto was sitting at the kitchen table, having just finished up eating his bowl of ramen for lunch and still listening to the radio, but so far there was nothing on any woman robbing anything. He wondered if he'd changed for nothing and if his gambit was gonna work before he realized what he'd just thought.

It was also odd, but whenever he did something that involved luck, it _always_ worked out for him. Kira said it was because of Kyuubi and how Kitsunes are lucky, and that it complimented their trickster nature as well. Naruto had been summarily amazed at that, and the fact Kira had just said something nice about himself rather than something self-deprecating.

It had hurt sometimes to hear Kira say those things about himself.

Naruto put the bowl in the sink and decided to go change, as he still hadn't gotten used to taking time to switch clothes at the drop of a hat. He changed into the darker set of clothing and when he came back downstairs, he heard on the radio that the woman from yesterday was robbing yet another bank. He knew the bank mentioned because it had been the one he past the previous day.

Naruto headed back upstairs as he wasn't about to go outside the front door like this, people might think he was a burglar or something and jumped out through his bedroom window. He touched the roof of the next building and took off in a black blur.

He saw another blur speeding through the streets and made sure never to lose sight of her and soon enough he followed her back to a warehouse. He landed on the roof opposite to him and thought back to the previous night about how Joystick had pulled that lamppost out of the street and how she threw that crate at Spider-Man; making him think of using the perfect jutsu to counter, or at the very least, match her strength.

He heard a _thwip_ sound in the air before Naruto felt the webbing hit him and he was sent spiralling into the ground. He glared over at the red and blue costumed man that was perched on the wall opposite to him and was sticking to it by his feet and hands. "Come on, we're on the same side here."

"With how yesterday went down? I'm not so sure about that." Spider-Man retorted before swinging down toward the warehouse where Joystick was hiding out.

Naruto felt like hitting his head on the concrete, but settled for rolling his eyes. He knew how bad it must have made him look to let Joystick go, but it was a necessary evil. He twisted his hand and reached for the kunai pouch at his thigh and pulled it out before carefully proceeding to cut through the webbing and it snapped away when he pushed his arms out.

Naruto stood back on his feet and jumped over to the warehouse, and looked in through the skylight. He pulled back a moment later to avoid getting his face smashed in by a crate that Joystick had thrown at Spider-Man. He peered back in and saw Joystick blasting a concussion blast at Spider-Man on a wall and he must not have remembered what the damage from yesterday did as he didn't jump back up the wall far enough and the man was sent falling onto the floor.

Joystick raised one hand as another bolt appeared and Naruto quickly through his kunai at the woman and the bolt disappeared as the metal began sparking. She ripped it off her wrist and tossed it away and she whirled around, Naruto throwing a flash bomb that hit the ground in front of her and Joystick stumbled back as she grabbed her face.

Naruto jumped down through the skylight and decided it was time to use that 'special' armour Kira taught him. "Rock Armour Release." He whispered as he felt the earth type chakra Kira had tested him for traced over his skin, and he was pleasantly surprised to feel that what Kira had said about the 'armour' not weighing him down to be true as he flashed his hands through several seals. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

When Joystick's vision recovered, she blinked upon spotting several dozen clones of the boy in the black and orange clothing. She laughed and was met with disbelieving looks. "Please, you think these illusions can save you?"

Naruto growled as he saw each clone had the tell-tale green reflective glow of the rock armour chakra. "Kick her ass!" he shouted and the clones all descended upon the woman while the originally hurried over to the red and blue costumed man. "You still think I'm the bad guy?"

The man seemed almost sheepish. "Point taken." He said echoing the previous night and looked at the fight taking place. "How were you able to make those?"

Naruto grinned proudly at this. "That's my secret, Spidey."

"Spidey?" The man questioned. "I kinda like the sound of that."

"You won't be liking it for much longer because you'll both be _dead_!" Joystick snarled as she was started to look manic in the crazy sense of the word and threw one of the clones at them.

The clone disappeared in a puff of smoke upon impact with the wall and Naruto winced from the memory of the impact. He winced several more times as he felt the punches take out his clones as if he was receiving them himself.

Naruto looked at Spider-Man with a raised brow. "What do you say we tag team to take this crazy lady down?"

The costumed man seem to think about this for a moment, as if partnering up with someone who let the same woman _escape_ the previous night was a good idea. "And you're not going to let her go?"

Naruto snorted. "Please, I'll be spending that time looking for the thing she stole from me."

"Then let's do this."

When Joystick finished off the last clone, she looked around, only to find herself alone. She scowled as a bolt of energy emitted from the remaining metal device on her wrist and looked around for the boy and Spider-Man. She'd get rid of the spider quickly, but she was going to blast that little brat into a million pieces for that Doppelgänger trick he pulled.

She felt something attach to her wrist and smirked. "Really, this trick isn't going to work a _third_ time." She said pulling the web line back and was about to punch the spider with her other fist when she saw that it _wasn't_ the spider but another bomb and it hit her in the chest.

She screamed as she felt like she was blinded and began firing off energy bolts in every which way as the panic started to set in. She felt her vision clear enough for her to see blurry shapes and tried to make a super speeded sprint for the exit, but a rock wall halted her attempt as she collided with it and was sent crashing onto her back.

Joystick was about to stand when the webbing hit her feet and she was pulled up into the air. She saw both Spider-Man and the boy standing on the ground and she glared at them. "You think this will hold me?" she sneered before moving her remaining metal device into the direction of the webbing, only to get a kunai shot into the device and it started sparking just like the other one. She quickly took it off and discarded it, her scowl deepening as she realized that she was effectively powerless in this position as the fall would most likely severely injure her, if not outright kill her.

"Bastards." She hissed.

Naruto paid no mind to the woman after that as he and Spider-Man looked around for the loot that Joystick stole from the First National Bank. He walked along the boxes and looked through each one, his face growing stormier and stormier as he found that none of them had the loot bag.

He was tempted to lash out at the woman, but he knew that she probably wouldn't give up its location.

"Hey, over here…kid." Spider-Man said pausing awkwardly over the latter part as he really did have no idea what to call the boy.

Naruto jogged over to him and he saw the bag that Joystick had used the previous day. "Sweet, now let me see…" he said trailing off as he rummaged through the bag, pulling out varying necklaces that were nice, but not _his_. He tossed each one back in and finally pulled out the silver locket that hopefully still held the picture of his family inside. "Here it is."

"It looks a little girly." Spider-Man said bluntly. "You sure that's the right one?"

Naruto scowled at the man and was tempted to hit _him_ as well as he put it into his pocket. "Yes, I'm sure it's the right one." He said and he heard the sirens approaching. "Time to go." He said and saw the man put the loot bag down and webbed a note to it. Naruto tilted his head as he read it aloud. "'Courtesy of your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man?' Lame." He snorted and sprinted out of the building and added some chakra to his leg muscles and jumped to the roof on the building he'd come to the scene on.

Naruto was about to continue on jumping when he heard Spider-Man call out for him to wait. He stopped against his better judgement and looked expectantly at the man. "Yes?"

"Well, you see, I can't keep calling you kid, so…" Spider-Man trailed off.

Naruto caught on quickly enough to what was being implied. And while he honestly had only done this whole thing to retrieve his locket, he thought he might actually end up enjoying this. "You can call me…" he paused as he hastily thought up a name and his clothing attire came to mind, "Black Fox."

* * *

><p><em>Konoha Council Room, 1:05<em>

The Civilian side of the council was collected into the empty room as the rest of the ninja side had all left to oversee the Chunin exams. The 'normal' members of the council had not dared speak after the Sandaime had chewed them out, as while they knew their actions were uncalled for, they couldn't let that woman live.

She was dangerous when she was alive, and for all intents and purposes, she was dead to the world at this point. No one had held any belief that she would recover, but those demon brats had argued time and time again that she _would_ wake up and they had already bewitched the Hokage into sparring the woman.

Just like  
>the rest of the village, none of the civilian council liked the elder demon brat, as he was a loose cannon that would sooner kill them all if he could. They didn't want to believe that a <em>human<em> woman would willing give birth to such a vile creature and had pointedly ignored the fact that the brat was still part human.

But unlike the rest of the village, they also didn't want to believe that the younger brat was their beloved Yondaime's son. It was preposterous that the man would use his own son to make such a thing as a Jinchuuriki, and only then it would have been to make a weapon.

They were civilians, they had no knowledge how jutsu worked, and therefore they had never realized that the Kyuubi was a separate entity from Naruto and had preferred to think of both demon brats as just that, demons.

Their overall opinions of Kushina were much worse as most, if not all, of the civilian women had hated the redhead for taking Minato's affection and hiding the murderous disposition she really had under the cheery façade she'd created. It baffled most that such a nice ma could ever stand being with such a…_her_.

They broke out of their memories as they looked over the information sheet and the bag of ryo notes, wondering if this would be enough.

"Why are we doing this behind the Sandaime's back?" One councilman asked.

"Because Hokage-sama is too soft to do what needs to be done. And if we do this, then we're guaranteed to have results." Another answered.

"Yes, but I still don't know why we need _international_ help." A councilwoman sniffed haughtily.

Most rolled their eyes. "Because while this is more likely to attract more…colorful characters, the ends justify the means; and our end result is seeing those demon brats burned in _this_ village." A council man explained.

The woman nodded as she put the quill to the sheet. "Method of extraction?"

"Dead or alive." Was the blunt answer.

The woman nodded again as she wrote it down. "'Uzumaki Kira and Naruto are to be detained and, if necessary, killed for they pose a dangerous threat to others if allowed to continue on living in freedom.' 50,000 dollar reward for capture."

_(#Action Pack Issue 6: As the bounty is set, the Uzumaki brothers are unaware of the price set on their heads as a 'new' comer rejoins the family. The euphoria is short-lived when they learn that the assassin Snapdragon is gunning for the bounty on them and isn't above murder to draw them out.)_


	6. Chapter 6

_# Action Pack Issue 6_

_June 30, 1:20 pm-New York Mall_

"I still don't see why we have to get our school supplies early." Naruto said pouting as he and Kira walked through the upper levels of the mall and were both carrying the packs they'd bought with the money Kira won from playing another scratch ticket as he had _yet_ to get a job that would hire him.

"Because school starts in September and when we get done this we won't have to go out for these school supplies later." Kira replied calmly.

Naruto nodded and they continued on walking before coming to a stop at a shoe store. "What are we doing here?"

Kira pushed the boy closer to the store. "_You're_ going to pick out a pair of shoes while I go hand out resumes. And we both know that I wouldn't leave you in a store by yourself unless it was important and I could trust you to stay put right?"

Naruto nodded. "You know you can."

Kira patted the boy's 'red' hair and gently pushed him all the way into the store before walking off. He could trust Naruto, but he didn't trust _anyone else_, but his brother was smart and wouldn't wander off.

Back inside the store, the 'redhead' was giving a cursory glance at the racks of shoes, his nose turning up in distaste at how uncomfortable they looked. They were nothing like his current foot ware, but assumed that he's going to have to wear these shoes for whatever reason later on.

He kept on walking before he bumped into a brunette girl and they flinched back. "I'm sorry." He said automatically as his experiences with Sakura taught him that females often hit you for doing the most accidental of things, talking unfortunately being something he was routinely hit for.

The girl looked somewhat indignant, but didn't look like she was about to hit him. "Just watch it, like, okay?"

Naruto nodded and saw the pair of shoes that were on the ground and assumed that the girl had dropped them when he bumped into her. "Again, I'm sorry." He said picking them up and handed them to her.

The girl shrugged as she accepted them. "Eh, no harm no foul." She replied before moving on.

Naruto felt somewhat mystified that he hadn't gotten a single sneer or hit on the head. He only dwelled on it because it was such a novel experience. Kira never hit him, but unfortunately Kira didn't count as 'people' by their standards despite the fact he was _still_ half-human, but then again Kira had never complained about it so he never brought it up.

He shook his head slightly as he himself continued on and went back to looking for shoes to buy.

* * *

><p><em>New York Airport, 1:30 pm<em>

Sheoke Sanada got off the plane, a briefcase in one hand and a pair of dark sunglasses on her face while her other hand contained the newest Bingo book and the marker was placed at the page that had led her to this city. The reward had almost been like a challenge that was being put in this book to bring back what sounded like two wayward children.

Well, she'd gotten lucky with one of her leads about it being reported of a blond and brunet boy arriving in New York before unceremoniously killing the informant to make sure that no one else could find them and try and horn in on her catch.

Sanada continued on past customs after having her case checked and making her way into the women's washroom. Nothing might have been _in_ the case, but no one accounted on her armour being the case itself, she thought before thinking over her plan on actually _catching_ the Uzumaki brothers.

She pulled the shuriken out of the holster on her arm before smirking. _'Well, I can always send a message_.'

* * *

><p><em>New York Mall, 2:00 pm<em>

Kira allowed himself to feel the starting point of contentment, even if the job he'd been hired at was a clothing store it still held some merit. He knew where to take Naruto now for when they had to get more clothing than the little that they had and since he was now an employee, he got a discount.

Kira arrived back in the shoe store and sniffed the air, his heightened sense of smell letting him find his brother sitting on the bench by the cashier easily. "Did you get something you like?" he asked quietly.

Naruto looked up and nodded before standing. "There black, but have they red streaks on them." He replied.

Kira gave an absent minded nod before the both of them started walking back to the entrance. "I finally got a job."

Naruto gave his brother a surprised look. "Really?" Kira nodded and the 'redhead' grinned. "That's great Kira-nii, where?"

Kira didn't answer at first. "A clothing store." He said carefully watching Naruto's face for his reaction.

To his credit, Naruto's expression didn't change. "Well I'm just glad you have a job now after trying so hard to find one." He really was proud of his brother, and while Kira didn't say anything, he saw the older boy's eyes soften just a little. Naruto kept looking around the area as they made their way to the exit and tried to do the mapping of the city that Kira did as they were driven home in a taxi.

"I'm going to teach you a new technique."

Naruto jumped in his seat and looked over at Kira in surprise, mostly from the fact his brother had spoken in their native language. He assumed that he was bending his own rule because this was probably a private discussion. "Really? Does that mean you're all done the 'settling in' stuff?" Kira nodded. "Great, what is it?"

"It's nothing that I could do properly since none of my elemental chakras are earth, but I can still use the technique to show you." Kira replied. "It's an escape technique, and all things considered this may end up saving your life someday."

Naruto nodded seriously, as he thought about this before knowing that his brother was right. The thought of it saving his life brought on the thought that someone would be after him to _use_ it in the first place. He tried not to shudder at that.

How much would it suck for that to happen, right?

* * *

><p><em>Elemental Nations<em>

The widespread of the news of Kira's departure from Konoha had been fast, and the news following it due to loose, drunken lips had spread just as fast.

Uzumaki Naruto, Kira's younger brother, was not only the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, but the son of the Yondaime Hokage.

The news made its way to the far reaches of the nations, spreading like wildfire and inciting different responses than Kira's departure had. It was almost unanimous though that everyone thought Konoha was an idiot; the fact the boy in question was a Jinchuuriki be damned.

Iwa had been a little torn on the subject though, as half the populace was seething in rage that the spawn of their hated enemy had left, or joy _because_ he had left and wouldn't come back to plague them as his father had.

Both Suna and Kumo though were still interested in this development as they had been with Kira's departure. They saw an opportunity present themselves once again, the fact that no one _knew_ where either of the Uzumaki's had gone being a minor obstacle.

After all, someone had to find them to try and attain the bounty put on their heads.

_#6 "Snapdragon"_

_Uzumaki Residence, 2:18 pm_

Kira made his way down into the basement that served as his bedroom since he had specifically left the only room left in the house alone as that one was going to be their mother's room. He went over to his pack and pulled out one of the sealing scrolls and after letting a droplet of his blood hit it, a puff of smoke erupted and a pile of scrolls appeared. He looked through several before picking up two earth techniques and one new water one for his brother to work on.

Naruto should be sufficiently occupied with these, and more importantly, having to master them would take more than a few days; giving him enough time to hopefully pass over July 2nd without any fuss.

Kira expression didn't change as he about his monthly bane. It was one of only two drawbacks to being a half-breed like him; he got a demonic half that he constantly had to hold back, and on the new moon every month he would become fully human. There wouldn't be any real physical change as he'd still look as he was, but all the fatigue from the previous month would catch up to him and leave him too tired to want to move out of bed.

The brunet knew Naruto knew about this, and would always look at him worriedly as the day drew closer in the months before, but since Naruto seemed to be so entranced by their new surroundings he wouldn't be too worried about him once he _did_ notice what day was coming up.

This was the reason he'd picked today to let Naruto start on his continued training.

Kira heard the phone ringing upstairs and walked up to find Naruto just picking it up. "Hello?" he the now blond boy asked. Kira's hearing picked up the reply on the other line before Naruto answered. "This is Naruto Uzumaki, what is this about? Is our mother okay?" he asked as his voice became more panicked. He calmed when the doctor on the other line said that nothing was wrong with their mother. "What is then?"

Kira froze minutely as Naruto's expression became slack. "Is she serious?" he prompted quietly.

That seemed to snap Naruto out of his daze as he shook his head. "Are you serious?"

Kira didn't even wait for Naruto to finish up with the phone call before putting the scrolls on the counter and was heading to the back door of the house and opened the door, looking back briefly to see his brother hand up the phone and walk over to him. His hands flashed through several hand seals before muttering something and somewhat hurriedly move Naruto through the door.

"Kira-nii, what did you just do?" Naruto asked.

"I cast a Genjutsu called 'Double False Surroundings.'" Kira explained shortly. "Anyone looks in our direction and they'll just see two birds flying low."

"I still can't get over how you can cast Genjutsus so easily while I can't even cast the basics." Naruto pouted.

Kira looked down at him, a look of actual annoyance crossing his face and Naruto knew that this was _not_ the time to be complaining. "Are you done yet?" Kira didn't _get_ angry at him, because his brother seemed to have an extremely long fuse, but even that had a limit.

And right now they had to get to the hospital. "I'm done." Naruto murmured.

Kira just nodded before jumping onto the roof and Naruto followed behind him as they headed into the city.

* * *

><p><em>New York General, 2:00 pm<em>

The first thing she was aware of was that her body felt weak and her stomach felt flat. Her thoughts immediately turned to her two little boys; Kira and Naruto. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep for, but nobody better have hurt her babies while she was asleep.

Kushina Uzumaki opened her purple eyes for the first time in twelve years and her eyes surveyed her surroundings. She was tough, she should have only been out for a few days at best, so why was she feelings so weak and hooked up to a life support machine? Kushina looked out of the corner of her eye and saw something that terrified her. All her long beautiful hair, the hair that Minato loved so much and she had used to stop Kurama-Kyubbi was _gone_; whittled down to scant inches from her shoulders.

A sense of anger overcame her as she thought about what she was going to do to those who had dared to shear off all her hair before a woman in a hospital coat came in. Finally, and the woman looked at her, in surprise first before turning kind. The expression genuinely startled her as the look was _genuine_ and not a fake one like she was used to seeing one the faces.

"Is good to see your awake, two special boys have been coming to see you and wondering when you'd wake up." The woman said kindly and Kushina felt her heart soar. Her special boys? Kira and Naruto! "Would you like for me to get them for you, if you're up for it that is."

Kushina nodded, her neck feeling stiff, but the doctor merely nodded in return before saying that she would get on it and have some orderlies come and give her a check-up to make sure that there was no adverse effects. The woman was left confused though, why would there be adverse effects in the first place?

Sure, she knew that it probably hadn't looked good for her in the first place; and why was the doctor speaking English anyway?

The orderlies had come and gone, taking her off the machine, and taking off her breathing mask to let her breath on her own. She had been given a button that would let her raise her bed so she could sit up in a way and she had done just that when the doctor told her that her boys were here.

Kushina's frail smile faded when she noticed that there was no infant and 4 year old, but a teenager and pre-teen. "Who…who are you two? Where are my babies?"

The younger ones face looked crushed and the older one's face tightened before he answered. "I'm Kira and this is Naruto-"

"Liar!" Kushina hissed. "My Naruto is just a baby and has _blond_ hair." She said looking at the pre-teen's red hair. "And my Kira has _orange_ eyes. Get out, get out!" she snapped and while the younger one looked about to break, the older one's face looked like it was made of stone as he closed his eyes.

"…do you hate me too, Kushina-nee?" he asked before opening his eyes and looking at her with orange eyes.

Kushina flinched back as her mind snapped back to the night when she and Minato had found Kira among the rubble of his home, the body of his birth mother just a few feet away and him looking up at them with tears streaming down his face as he asked the same question and the same nickname attached to it before she'd actually become his mother.

Kushina saw the face of that little boy overlap with the one in front of her and she put her face in her hands. "…how long?" she questioned quietly. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Twelve years." Kira answered as he gestured for the other boy to cut his jutsu and Kushina's heart broke a little when she realized just _how_ long she's been away from her boys and saw the now blond-haired boy that looked like such a perfect mix of her and Minato.

Twelve years. She'd left her boys to fend for themselves for _twelve years_. "Where am I?" she asked as she knew she wasn't in a _Konoha_ hospital. The people here were too nice to her after all.

Kira seemed a little reluctant to speak. "We're in New York."

"That explains it." Kushina replied and thought about _why_ for a moment before pushing it away as she noticed that both of her boys were standing away from her. "Come here, let me hold you guys." She said holding out her arms.

They both approached somewhat hesitantly and once they sat on the edge of the bed on both sides, Kushina wrapped one arm around both of them and ran her hand through their hair, Naruto even putting his head on her shoulder as he let out something that sounded suspiciously like a sob. "You…you need a shower Kaa-chan." He choked out.

Kushina let out a small, choked laugh. "I know, Fishcake, I know." Naruto made a slight face at the name, but smiled lightly as she kissed him on the forehead and he closed his eyes. Kushina looked at Kira and smiled softly at him. "I'm sorry for yelling at you both."

Kira shook his head. "Don't be, it was our fault for not getting the Transformation jutsu and explaining things beforehand." He replied. "It's just that…we've missed you so much."

Kushina's smile widened. "Well I'm not going anywhere now." she promised as she kissed Kira on the forehead as well before resting her head on the pillow and closed her eyes.

Kira was about to close his eyes as well when he saw the doctor outside the door and looked rather hesitant about breaking up the scene, so Kira carefully took his mother's arm off his shoulder and put in on the bed gently before walking over to the door and gave his mother and brother another glance, his eyes turning gray once more as he stepped outside the room and closed the door softly. "Yes, Doctor Reyes?"

The woman handed him the chart in her hands. "You can see for yourself, but you're mother's vitals are fine, though because of the fact she's been in a coma for so long then you have to understand she'll have to be kept here until she's a healthy weight again and can move around properly without fear of falling down."

Kira nodded as he knew that Kushina was a strong woman and she'd bounce back, but it was the psychological effects he was worried about. While he did know that she knew about dad sealing Kyuubi in Naruto, he was worried about how long it would take to hit her.

It had taken himself several hours to fully understand the concept of death at the age of three and to know that no matter what, his biological mother was never coming back. He knew there _was_ a technique to revive the dead, but it was a mockery of life and he would wish the 'rebirth' on no one, let alone to have the memories of the people he cared for sullied by being brought back in such a vile way.

"And…" The doctor seemed once again hesitant to continue, "the manner of your payment…"

Kira held up his hand. "It's okay." He said and while the words were somewhat flat, he did mean them as this woman _was_ the one who oversaw their mother's care, so for that he would give her some slack. "I can pay the bill, I just need to know if that will include the physiotherapy or not."

"It will." Doctor Reyes replied. "The bill is on the second page."

Kira nodded, and when he saw the exact amount, his face didn't even tighten. He just calmly nodded, as he learned a long time ago not to be bothered by how much things cost. It was just a manner of _getting_ the money he needed to think over. And the bill did state it could be paid after the therapy was over. "Now if you'll excuse me…" he said quietly before going back into the room and saw his mother and brother sleeping peacefully on the bed still.

Kira walked over and sat down beside Kushina before noticing the fact the room had a television and grabbed the remote on the bedside table and turned it on, making sure to keep it low enough that it won't disturb his sleeping family, but loud enough for his hearing to pick up.

Kira had no real interest in watching television other than the news, seeing as he could find more productive things to do with his time and he came to a news station with apparently breaking news. It was of a gruesome murder scene with the victims head cut off and there were markings on the wall and his eyes widened slightly when he realized that it was in kanji.

'Beware; Snapdragon is here, demon brats.'

Kira felt the stirrings of anger in his chest and _knew_ what the message meant. Someone had found them; someone had murdered to get their attention. Was it too much to ask for them to have a normal life? Or as normal as it was gonna get, or was this it? Kira looked over at his family and decided that they _are_ going to have a normal life and turned the televisions off.

His eyes narrowed as he stared out the window. _'Well Snapdragon, message received.'_

* * *

><p><em>July 1, 1:12 pm-New York General<em>

Kira didn't like using visiting their mother as an excuse to sneak into the morgue where he overheard that the murder victim was stored in, but in order to keep them safe, he had to do this. He couldn't tell either of them about the murder, as both of them would undoubtedly flip, but he resolved to tell them about this murder _after_ he'd caught the culprit and _why_ they were trying to ruin their new lives.

He was of course going to leave out the beating he was going to give the culprit though when he _did_ find them.

Naruto had only been all-too-happy to stay with their mother and talk to her about how Kira raised him and what he taught him, but they both knew better than to tell her about how the villagers treated them just yet. They both knew she'd want to give the council a piece of her mind, but she wasn't _ready_ for that just yet.

Kira took on the appearance of an average orderly and wasn't even glanced at twice when he entered the lower floor of the building and found himself in the morgue. He looked over the sheet and scrolled down the list until he came to where it said 'new arrival' and found the 'fridge.'

Kira opened it and his face twisted slightly at the sight of the missing head and took a deep breath, the smell of dead flesh hitting his nose and he was, as always, somewhat worried to find that he didn't find it disgusting. Forget only having _two_ drawbacks to being a half-breed, the third was cannibalism as demons only saw one real use for humans, and that was to be entrées. Hence the super senses to allow them to _hunt_ better for their meals.

Kira himself had even felt these instinctual urges to take a bite out of something and at one point he actually _did_, but it was when he was still very young and hadn't realized the full effect of what he was at the time.

That and the person he'd bitten was a man who had been yelling at him for trying to play around 'normal' children. But other than that he's never tried to eat anyone, as that would constitute as killing someone. Something he'd promised never to do.

Kira pushed past the smell of something his species considered food and found another scent, this one of a _woman_ and knew he'd likely found his culprit. Thankfully his disgust was stronger than his temptation and he closed the 'fridge' without any trouble. He left the room and moved back up to the upper levels of the building before letting his disguise drop, but kept his eyes gray as he walked back to his mother's room.

He found Kushina and Naruto having a discussion about jutsu. "Which one are you talking about?"

"The Shadow Clone." Naruto said and pouted. "How come you never told me about the different types before?"

Kira stared at him dryly as he closed the door. "I did, but you kept asking for ramen instead."

Naruto flushed as Kushina perked up. "Say, do you think you can sneak me in some? This place's food is alright and all, but nothing beats ramen."

"Sorry Kaa-chan, but Doctor Reyes was specific about you only getting supplemented food to get you back to normal." Kira replied as he saw on the chair he'd set beside the bed, Naruto preferring to sit on the actual bed. "How are you feeling today?"

"Alright I guess, but everything still feels so stiff; and the doc said she was going to get me to start moving around when I'm all 'fixed up' so to speak." Kushina replied and hugged Naruto, while patting Kira on the head and ruffling up his hair. "You guys are the highlight of my day so far." She said softly.

Kira's normally blank mask softened just a little to let a small smile cross his lips, his canines being seen just protruding out a little. "And you are ours."

And if he had anything to say about it, this 'Snapdragon' was _not_ going to ruin it.

* * *

><p><em>Uzumaki Residence, 2:48 pm<em>

"So, what am I going to be working on?" Naruto asked after having the two of them got back from the hospital and were sitting outside on the grass.

Kira simply handed his brother three scrolls before the tone of his voice took on a distinct lecture-like tone. "As I've said before, since I don't have the right chakra type they won't work that well for me, but you will have no problem; other than actually _mastering_ them of course." He explained and Naruto nodded. "The first one is Earth Release: Tunneling Technique, which will allow you to move underground without disrupting the area around you, and makes a great quick escape should the need arise for it. The second is called Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique, which makes things or people light and can increase their speed, but it's horrible for offensive attacks as the force of the blow isn't as great."

Naruto stared wide-eyed at his brother before remembering the fact Kira only seemed to show _something_ akin to excitement was when he was talking about Jutsu. "And…and the third?"

"It called Ice Disk Technique, but don't be fooled by the name, it's still considered a water jutsu, and you're not ready for combining chakras just yet, so this will get you ready. It allows you to create a transparent disk made from the moisture in the air and can be hurled at anyone, and is also a handy shield or can be created to form disks capable of moving in the air."

Naruto's attention was attracted to that point. "You mean I can essentially _fly_ if I master this?" Kira nodded and Naruto grinned. "Then I'm definitely learning this one." He thought thinking about not being worried about the too far jumps he'd have to flicker to.

"Glad you like it." Kira said before standing and his hands flashed through several seals and he muttered something under his breath. "I put up another Genjutsu, same one as before, but only this time no one will notice you but you can still be heard," he gave Naruto a dry stare, "so don't be cursing."

Naruto's grin turned sheepish as he rubbed his head. "I don't curse."

"Right." Kira retorted flatly. "I'm making dinner early as something came up, I'll be back late, okay?"

Naruto blinked before nodding. "Uh, sure." He decided not to think of anything Kira did as strange as he knew that _he_ had no right to criticize seeing as he had decided to become a masked vigilante behind Kira's back.

Speaking of which, he should really get started on this Ice Disk thing so he can fly right away.

* * *

><p><em>New York City, 6:45 pm<em>

Kira jumped across the roof buildings as his Genjutsu shielded him and he kept sniffing the air, figuring he'd catch the scent sooner or later, but then again he'd been thinking that for the past two hours now and still nothing. Kira stopped on one building and took a breather moment and his eyes suddenly snapped back open as the female scent he'd gotten from the man's dead body hit his nose.

It was faint, but it was all he had at the moment and he changed direction and as he followed the scent, the stronger it got until it lead him to a motel. He sneered around at the surroundings as he continued to follow the scent up the stairs and kept sniffing around, though the stench of other smells started to mix in and soon it became increasingly difficult to stay focus without feeling the need to wretch.

Kira stopped once again and held his breath to allow him some reprieve from the smells and then 'dove back in' so to speak and started to sniff around again and soon he found where the woman's scent was originating. He briefly considered breaking in and beating the woman up before scrapping the idea of being too stupid and wondered _how_ he should approach this.

Well, the woman _was_ after him, so he'd do something he'd never thought he'd do with an enemy; talk to them. _Then_ he'd beat her up. And if she attacked he'd just fight back.

Kira knocked on the door as he dropped the Genjutsu and a dark-haired woman answered it. Instant recognition flooded her face as a shuriken seem to come from her sleeve and tried to jab him with it, only for Kira to pull back and he kicked her inside.

The woman he was sure was Snapdragon grabbed the briefcase she'd landed by and it suddenly started to shift and change until it was no longer a briefcase and had encased _her_ in some metal outfit and visor. "You were very foolish to come here." She said smirking.

"So says the one who was dumb enough to issue a public challenge." Kira said cracking his knuckles. "So tell me, Snapdragon, why are you here?"

The woman's smirk widened as he threw several shuriken at him and he jumped to the side as they embedded themselves in the wall. "Wouldn't you like to know Uzumaki."

Kira didn't like toying with people, well, much anyway, but he needed to know_ why_right now. "Talk and why don't you turn yourself in while you're at it?" he snarked.

"I don't think so." Snapdragon retorted before aiming a kick for his head and he blocked it before doing a drop kick that sent the woman across the room and hit the table beside the bed.

Kira noticed the book that fell to the floor and recognized it. _'A Bingo book? Then that means…._' His thoughts trailed off before he came to the realization that he was probably _in it_. His face grew stony as he stepped in front of the woman and his hands started crackling with purple electricity and he zapped her, her letting out a silent scream. "I suppose you never knew that metal conducts electricity, hmm?" he asked glaring at her. "Now, _why are you here_?"

Snapdragon gritted her teeth before spitting at him. "Go to hell, demon scum."

Kira wiped the spit off his cheek and zapped her once again. "I'm through being nice; you'd better tell me _right now_ or else."

Snapdragon had the audacity to laugh at him. "Or else what? Everyone knows that you don't kill; it says so right on your bounty."

Kira smirked viciously, his canines no longer looking cute, but making his expression _worse_. "You said in your kanji 'demon _brats'_ emphasis on the 's.'" he said glaring at her. "I don't take kindly to people who threaten my brother; so who put the bounty on us?" Snapdragon remained silent and Kira gave her another zap, and then another until he was sure he could smell her singed skin. "Still nothing? I can do this all night woman."

He knew he couldn't, but _she_ didn't know that and just as he was about to zap her again, Snapdragon held up a hand weakly. "No more, I'll talk."

Kira lowered his hands and waited.

"The bounty was sanctioned by your village at 50,000; with you or the boy being dead or alive." Snapdragon explained.

Kira's face twisted up in a snarl as he promptly knocked the woman out and his thoughts returned to the fact his _former_ 'village' had actually put a bounty on his and Naruto's heads. His expression changed once again back to its smirk as he thought about how sorry they were all going to be once their _mother_ found out about this.

Oh yes, if they thought _he_ was bad, wait until they saw _her_.

_(#Action Pack Issue 7: As Kira is put out of commission, Naruto continues his training, and in the course of the day makes an interesting new friend named Kitty Pryde and hits it off with the Parkers, but makes a new enemy in the woman known as Iron Maiden.)_


	7. Chapter 7

_# Action Pack Issue 7_

_July 2, 10 am- Uzumaki Residence_

Naruto walked down the stairs to the kitchen with the three scrolls under his arm and he sees in confusion that there's no smell of breakfast. He found this strange as Kira was _always_ up before him to make him breakfast, even though his brother was not a morning person and wouldn't generally talk to him when they were eating.

He shrugged as he remembered his brother saying he'd be in late the night before and thought that he was just tired.

Naruto's train of thought stopped and backed up. Since when did _they_ get tired? Sure, it happened, but only after hours and hours of training or... The blond frowned to himself and he looked over at the calendar hanging beside the phone and his expression turned guilty when he realized what today was.

'_I'm such an idiot_.' He admonished himself before walking over to the freezer and took some waffles out and put them into the toaster before grabbing a packet of pop tarts out of the cupboard and headed down into the basement silently. If his brother even _did_ wake up today, he should at least be able to reach his food before falling asleep again.

Naruto looked around the sparsely decorated room as the only things in the dwelling were a bed, desk, and various things they'd bought at the store yesterday for school. He saw that on the bed there was a lump under the covers and a hand over the pillow on his head. The blond gently set the packet down on the table as he knew that even as a human Kira would still be awake at the slightest sound.

Naruto went back up the stairs and quietly closed the door behind him and went back into the kitchen. He grabbed a plate and readied his breakfast, wondering how he could have forgotten about his brother's…'condition.' But again, he knew it wasn't possible that _Kira_ forgot about it since he found the prospect of being nearly catatonic more disturbing than actually becoming human.

This had left Naruto befuddled still as Kira hated humans-he and Kushina not included in that generalization.

After Naruto had finished eating, he put the plate in the sink and seeing as there weren't that many dishes, he opted to wash them later in the evening before grabbing the scrolls and headed outside.

_#7 "A Day in the Life of Naruto Uzumaki"_

The blond looked around the surroundings and concentrated on the surrounding area and sensed the chakra still powering the surrounding Genjutsu from the day before and Naruto berated himself for doubting Kira's ability with keeping up a large scale technique.

Naruto put down two scrolls before looking over the Light-Weight-Rock Technique and reread the basis of what he had to do. This could also be useful for making things that would otherwise be too heavy for him to carry. He remembered the first time Kira gave him that piece of chakra paper and told him to push some of his chakra on it, thinking it had just been Kira's idea of a joke before seeing the paper split three ways, one edge get soggy, and the other turn to dust.

It had been at that point he'd asked (as he knew better than to _demand_ things from his brother) an explanation. Which Kira had given him, cutting down most of it as being too boring or unnecessary; thought the gist of it was that Naruto could learn jutsu that were water, earth and wind based as they were his elemental chakras.

Naruto had further inquired as to _how_ he got them and Kira revealed that their mother had water and earth based chakras (not to mention a rather abnormal sense of strength) and their father had wind. His brother had then told him of his own chakras that were lightning, fire, and wind, only one of which he could positively identify as being from Kyuubi, but wasn't sure how he got the other two.

It was also at that point Kira had gotten uncomfortable when Naruto asked how Kyuubi could have given him his elemental chakra if he was sealed inside their mom. His brother obviously _knew_ how it happened, as he mumbled something about chakra being involved and had quite hastily changed the subject.

In the present time, Naruto once again pondered why his brother got so agitated when his conception was called into question and resolved to ask his brother more directly when he was coherent and conscious as he knew that Kira obviously couldn't have been made the 'normal' way.

Naruto shook his head as he gathered his earth chakra and concentrated on spreading it over his skin, though unlike the earth armour, this was going to make him lighter instead of giving him a defense and super strength. He jumped into the air and was disappointed that he could only just as high as the roof, but he had to keep his focus when he noticed his descent was _a lot_ softer and bent his knees before jumping up into the air again and while he was still only made it to the roof, his descent this time was nearly weightless.

_'That is so cool.'_ Naruto thought as he remembered what Kira said about others still being able to hear him even though they couldn't see him.

The blond tried the technique several more times before he looked out at the buildings and felt a strange sense to go out and investigate his new surroundings. He only found this feeling strange as he while he knew that he wouldn't get glares sent at him, he was still a little shy to _actually_ go out before.

Making up his mind, Naruto flashed through several hand seals and a dozen or more Shadow Clones appeared. "Okay, group one takes the Tunnel Technique, group two takes the Light-Weight Rock one, group three takes the Ice Disk, and one of you sits out and waits for Kira-nii to come upstairs to tell him that I'm going out to explore, got?"

"Hai, Boss!" They all chorused.

Naruto held up his hands quickly. "And most importantly, please dispel yourselves one at a time so I don't get a headache, and don't make any noise, as Kira-nii is still asleep and no one can see us, alright?" he questioned and the clones all nodded. "Good, now hop to it." He commanded before walking into the house and went up to his room before grabbing his new pack and headed back down stairs and going out the door and he transformed himself into his disguised form.

Naruto walked down the street as he while he forced himself not to be so cautious, but after spending so much time seeing people glaring at his brother or ignoring him, he was still just a little suspicious. After all, the psychological abuse he'd suffered and the physically abuse Kira had suffered wasn't going to go away overnight.

The 'redhead' stumbled onto a park and after making sure no one was looking at him, walked over to a bench and reached into his pack to pull out a book on Science. He liked Math, he was _good, very good_ at Math, but he'd taken something of an interest in science as he found a parallel to the jutsus he did.

They both required precise directions or at best they just wouldn't work, or at worst it could be fatal if careless.

Kira had come to such a mess when he'd dispelled every shadow clone he'd used when he'd been training and had knocked himself out. And while Naruto could freely, and cheerfully at that, admit Kira was _much_ stronger than him, he knew better than to assume that Kira was invincible or infallible.

He knew that his brother had so many faults that he'd just been accustomed to since he could remember, like he was vaguely controlling and very paranoid, but then again, since people actually _were_ out to get them he'd let that pass.

Naruto had long since accepted that while Kira _was_ a rather distant and displayed rather psychotic tendencies when his fuse finally reached its end, he also knew that his brother was the way he was because of how awful his life had been.

The 'redhead' could see the part of Kira that no one knew existed as his brother had hardened his heart to never be hurt again, but him and their mother were the exceptions. Kira _was_ a good person, all faults aside, and while morally ambiguous at times, he'd always put Naruto above himself.

It got to the point where Naruto had worried if Kira even _wanted_ to protect himself.

The pre-teen shook his head of the unpleasant thoughts that his brother might actually have some suicidal tendencies to add to his list of problems and began looking through the book. He was on page two of the introductory when he another person sat on the bench and he blinked. "Hey, didn't I meet you in the shoe store yesterday?" he asked tactlessly.

The brunette girl looked over at him in bewilderment before seeming to recognize him. "Yeah, you were the kid with the cool sandals." She said before looking at his feet and seeing said sandals. "What a coincidence we'd both at the park?"

Naruto resisted pointing out what his brother said about not believing in coincidences, but he didn't want to freak her out. "Uh, you go to school around here, I'm just starting this fall and any info would be useful."

The girl looked interest in the conversation at this point. "You just got here? I was the new kid last year as I transferred from Illinois, where are you transferring from?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head as he tried to figure out how to word it. "I'm from Japan, the name's Naruto Uzumaki, you?"

"I'm Kitty Pryde." The girl replied smiling. "So you're from Japan? How exotic, but," she looked at his head and seemed nervous about something, "do you happen to dye your hair?"

Naruto didn't blink, nor was he offended. "No, it's all natural." He said grinning, though it was _really_ a lie as his hair _was_ naturally the way it was. Naturally _blond_ that is. "So about Middle school, do they have a science class I could take?"

The girl brightened. "You like science, no way, I like science too!" she replied cheerily. "And yes, they do have a science course."

"Oh," Naruto said as he was caught a little off guard by Kitty's fast talking, but he didn't really mind it as he could really get off track when talking about something he likes, "anything else? I'll need options to weed through so I can pick the best option."

Kitty put a hand to her chin in thought. "Well, I know that you _have_ to take English, Science, P.E, and Math, but the ones you can chose from are Drama, Music, Art, Language Studies and Computers."

Naruto thought over the ones he had to take as areas he was already versed in, then over the ones he could take. "Drama and Art sound cool, and I'm _really_ good at acting too." He said as he'd spent all his life acting like everything was okay with the place Kira called a living hell.

"You know, most kids would balk at the idea of taking Math or just going to school in general." Kitty pointed out.

Naruto shrugged as he smirked a little. "Well I'm not most kids." he replied.

"So since you're new here and all, I can show you around if you want." Kitty offered. "I know great places that us 'not most kids' go instead of an arcade."

Naruto smiled a real true blue smile. "Sure." He said before confusion overtook his features. "What's an arcade?"

* * *

><p><em>Land of Fire Outpost, 11:45 am<em>

Jiraiya looked over the scroll in his hand that he'd gotten him his informant in the Akatsuki, an organization of S-rank criminals' intent on extracting the tailed demons out of their hosts and using them for some nefarious purpose that had leaned toward the inclination of using the power of the demons to take over the Elemental Nations.

Jiraiya was torn on wondering if Kira and Naruto being out of the Nations was a good idea. He'd already faced Tsunade's wrath the day before about his own shortcomings with not being there for the kids while she had berated herself for the same thing.

It was a very awkward conversation.

With Kira and Naruto not being around, it meant that the Akatsuki couldn't find them, and while they only needed Naruto since he held the actual Kyuubi, Jiraiya doubted they'd pass up the chance to rip Kira's soul out of his body to power the last statue in Naruto's place.

The bad part of this came when he found that they'd both been placed in the Bingo book with bounties on their head, and from Konoha's own Civilian council. Sarutobi had ripped them a new one and tried to get them to take back the offer, but even under the threat of treason they wouldn't budge, smugly saying that since neither Kira nor Naruto were legal citizens of Konoha anymore that they were fair game.

Jiraiya had wanted to curse them all out himself because of the things set in motion because of this bounty. He knew that no one would be able to pass this much money up thinking they'd be easy captures, and while Kira was admittedly strong, people still knew he was a _baby_ demon compared to the likes of the older ones and wouldn't know enough about himself to fully understand what he was capable of.

The old sage had no idea what the Civilians had been thinking or why could possibly want either of them back after they finally leave. Was it because the combined threat was out _there_ now, and out of their reach? Or was it because that power was out there and at any time they (or more precisely _Kira_) could come back and have no problem with burning the village to the ground?

Whatever the reason, the Akatsuki were taking no active part in looking for either of them as there would be all these bounty hunters on the Uzumaki's looking to cash in and swoop in if either of them was ever caught.

Jiraiya though had told his informant to alert him if this changed though as he wasn't taking any chances with their safety. Neither may want to accept him, and he wouldn't blame them, but he was still their godfather and he knew he had to start acting like it.

Better late than never after all, and he had _a lot _of things to make up for; this being one small step to earning back their trust.

* * *

><p><em>Konoha Academy, 12:25 pm<em>

Iruka picked absently at his lunch as his class had been let out to go and enjoy _their_ lunch time and he had time to reflect over the Chunin Exam proceedings and his previous students that we in the exam. He'd thought they were all still too green to take them, not because he didn't think they weren't going to do fine, but about the different aspects of the exams.

The fact there was killing in the exams was a major factor and he didn't think any of them were prepared to actually take another life. He remembered how young Kira had looked next to Anko when those two went off to Kusa for the exams he had to take and when they came back Anko had bragged to anyone in hearing distance that her Genin had decimated the competition with his unique Dojutsu.

He had of course been skeptical about this until he heard what _exactly_ it could do and his own fear of Kira had risen. Kira could cause pain, just by _looking_ at someone; it was the ability he'd inherited from his mother, a term not many were willing to acknowledge and just believe that the boy really _had_ just sprung up from nowhere.

It had only come at a later date that Anko hadn't meant Kira _killed_ anyone, only just rendered them all unable to continue to fight from the amount of pain he'd put the other Genin in with his Dojutsu.

In fact, no one from Konoha had actually _seen_ Kira use this Dojutsu Anko told them about until she revealed that Kira's eye color, the burning orange he'd looked at everyone with, _was_ his active Dojutsu and it took some control to _not_ use it.

Iruka was still scared of Kira, but his respect for him rose as while he knew that Kira probably hadn't learned to control his pain-inducing power for _the villager's_ safety, so much as Naruto's. It showed that Kira at least cared about Naruto and wasn't going to risk hurting his brother in favor of making everyone suffer.

He knew Kira didn't like him, just like with everyone else in Konoha, so he tried to stay out of his way.

When Kira got done his exams, he was just as moody as he'd been before, when he saw his former students after the exams, they looked worse for wear.

He tried not to think about the fact that unlike Kira, none of them had ever experienced such a hard life that Kira had, as even Sasuke hadn't gone through what Kira had. Yes, the boy tragically lost his family, but he never had to deal with the searing hatred of the village hating him for just breathing.

Iruka realized that not even _Naruto_ had gotten such treatment; the only exception had been the one attack on him from a mob that had wanted to kill Kira but settled for Naruto. And even then Kira made them _all_ pay for hurting his brother.

It was only after that incident did everyone just try and pretend Naruto simply didn't exist. It proved to be a lot safer than facing Kira's wrath.

Well for those who had any sense of self-preservation that is.

* * *

><p><em>Restaurant District, 1:00 pm<em>

Kurenai looked over her students and felt a torn sense of pride and worry. Shino had won his match, as had Kiba, but Hinata had forfeited her match against her cousin. And as much as she saw the girl as a surrogate daughter and wanted her to succeed, she even knew that the girl had no chance of beating her cousin.

While Hinata's cousin Neji had won their match by default, neither of his other teammates had beaten their opponents.

All of the other Genin had fared well during the second exam, but she couldn't help wondering how Kakashi's team would have fared in the exam. From what she'd seen, they didn't look like they actually _belonged_ on the same team, as there was nothing but animosity between them.

Or, the animosity both Sakura and Sasuke had for Naruto at least and Naruto's slightly overbearing tendencies. Then again, at least he _had_ a reason seeing as he wanted his teammates to be his friends. Then there was the glaringly obvious subject that seemed to bring out the worst in the blond.

His family seemed to be his only weak point.

While Naruto was cheerful, nice, and generally a good person, it took only one mouthy student telling off his mother and brother for everyone to be reminded that he had been raised by someone that was considered a living nightmare.

All she knew was that since Naruto wasn't here, they'd never know what Team 7 had really been capable of.

* * *

><p><em>New York Science Center, 11:50 am<em>

"Wow, this is awesome!" Naruto exclaimed looking around the exhibits in awe. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Are you serious, you've never seen anything like this?" Kitty asked raising a brow.

Naruto shook his head. "No." he replied as he thought about how his chakra worked. While he knew chakra was a mixture of spiritual and physical energy. He seriously didn't want to think about how much control Kira need to keep not only his human chakra, but demonic chakra in check.

Especially since the demonic one had actually made him sick once when Kira had shown him a Ninjutsu _powered_ by demon chakra. He had no idea how his brother could stand using it as he'd used Kyuubi's chakra on the bridge back in Wave and had thrown up when he was by himself and had slept half the day.

It was actually scary for him to think of Kira's own chakra hurting him because of his human half.

"Naruto, you okay, you look kind of worried about something." Kitty pointed out, a frown creasing her brow.

Naruto looked up from his gaze on the floor and blinked. "Oh, I'm fine." He said plastering on a convincing fake smile.

A surprisingly bitter thought reminded him he was _really_ good at acting.

Their nice time looking at the exhibits was cut short as there was a crash in the ceiling and the people moved away with a start. In the mist of the fallen debris was a female shape in metallic yellow armour and had yellow tinted glasses on while her hair was pulled back in a dark-haired ponytail. The woman grabbed a huge chunk of the debris and threw it at a group of people, who were falling over themselves to get away.

_'Light-Weight Rock Technique!'_ Naruto thought holding out one hand concentrated on making the debris lighter so that when it hit the people wouldn't be harmed.

The debris practically bounced off the group and the woman looked over suddenly in Naruto's direction and he started to back away, pulling Kitty with him. "Uh, we should go; like now!"

"How could that rock not hurt those people?" Kitty wondered aloud as they went out the door and was separated by the crowd also rushing to get out.

"Naruto, where'd you go?" Kitty shouted over the crowd as she saw a speck of red hair on the other side.

"Don't worry about me." Naruto called back before ducking into the side alley and transformed into his Black Fox persona, which was just taking his henge on his hair and skin off while making the clothes appear in place of his regular clothing.

He knew better than to think he could use this all the time as it took focus to keep the henge up, and while he could pull off his disguised civilian appearance, it was because he wouldn't be trying too hard to keep it up, unlike now where he had to worry about fighting someone and making sure they don't know what he looks like.

Naruto ran up the wall and fell in through the skylight. "Hey, what's the big idea, people are trying to _learn_ here!" he snarled.

The woman smirked as she actually stopped in her senseless rampage. "Hello, Uzumaki-san."

Naruto flinched as he was addressed by name. "Who…who are you, and whose this Uzumaki you speak of?"

"You can call me the Iron Maiden," The woman replied, "but don't play dumb with me, I know exactly who you are; son of the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, and the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune and the younger brother to the demon bane of Konohagakure." She recited smirking in an odd gesture that reminded Naruto of a vaguely feline expression.

Naruto had been growing increasingly nervous with every sentence the woman said. "How do you know all that?" he asked quietly.

"I know my prey well when I'm being sent after them," Iron Maiden replied, her smirk only widening at seeing the boy's eyes widen in shock, "surprise? Well don't be, you left your village, your fair game." She said taking a stance.

Naruto took one of his own, and since this woman seemed to know about the Elemental Nations, he knew that she must have some jutsu up her sleeve. "I left _legally_. Hunter-nin shouldn't be after me _or_ my brother!"

"Well your village doesn't seem to think so as they put a bounty on both your heads to be brought back to Konoha; dead or alive it said." Iron Maiden replied as she took a pair of shuriken out of her belt and threw them at the blond.

Naruto dodged before his hands flashed through several hand seals. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he yelled and a dozen clones appeared. "Kick her ass!" her commanded as they attempted to do the same technique against Joystick; overwhelm her until he could get a shot in.

It was too late when Naruto remember that this woman knew _jutsu_ too as her hands flashed through a set of hand seals. "Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder!" she shouted and electricity shot out of her hands and decimated all his clones.

Naruto winced as he felt the clones taking the hits from their memories and held his head briefly before glaring at the woman and flashed through one hand seal. "Wind Release: Air Bullets!" he shouted before firing off one of the techniques Kira had taught him before he'd gone off to Wave.

Iron Maiden took several hits as she dodged the rest, her exo-metallic suit seeming to be much sturdier than he realized. "Hmm, wind against a lightning user, not bad." She said complimentarily before shooting off a fire technique that had Naruto stunned for a moment before dodging it by a hairs-breath. "But not good enough." She said appearing behind Naruto and kicking him in the back, sending the blond flying into one the walls.

Naruto got back to his feet as he felt his muscles start to heal back up and put one hand on the wall to steady him. "Just what rank are you?"

"Why, I'm Jonin of course, too much for a kid like you to handle." Iron Maiden retorted smirking as her hands started crackling with electricity. She was about to fire it off at him before the sounds of sirens hit both their ears and the electricity faded. "Oh well, looks like this is wear out fun ends, sayonara." She said flashing through several hand seals and disappearing in a body flicker.

Naruto crushed the gravel in his palm and scowled at the spot the woman had been in before reluctantly flashing through a set of seals as well and disappearing in a puff of smoke and appeared back outside the alley. The blond dispersed his clothing transformation before changing his skin and hair again and a 'redhead' walked out of the alley as paramedics and the police arrived on the scene.

"Where were you?" Kitty asked as she started Naruto from showing up unexpectedly from behind him.

Naruto would have jumped if he wasn't still recovering from his wounded pride. "I was pushed back into the building by the crowd of people clawing to get out and I couldn't find you." He said easily.

"Well don't do that, I don't want my new friend to get killed in one of these crazy Super Villain fights." Kitty replied.

Naruto looked up at that as his eyes started to shine suspiciously bright. "Friends?" he repeated softly. "You really mean that?"

Kitty nodded. "Why wouldn't I mean that?" she questioned before she was pulled into a hug by the 'redhead.' "Oh." She said startled before relaxing and felt the other pre-teen's bicep and the developing muscle on it. "Oh." She said flushing.

Naruto pulled back with a frown. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked feeling suddenly worried that he might have over-stepped some invisible boundary and was going to lose his first real friend.

Kitty blushed and shook her head vigorously. "No, no you didn't do anything wrong. You just…surprised me."

"Oh." Naruto said as he started flushing himself, the bruised pride he'd suffered as Iron Maiden beat him like he was nothing starting to fade, but he wondered if it was a good idea to tell Kira about the bounty; not because he didn't _want_ to tell his brother, but because of the fact he'd have to tell him how he _knew_ this.

And that would lead to an awkward discussion about him sneaking out at night to fight crime.

So for now he wouldn't say anything until he had smoothed over the idea of being a costumed superhero with his brother before dropping the bounty thing on him.

Kitty took out a strange looking device from her pocket. "It's after noon; you wanna go get something to eat?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Well, I don't exactly have any money on me to pay…"

"That's okay, I heard from my friend Jubilee that there having an all you can eat buffet just down the street." Kitty piped up.

Naruto raised a brow before grinning. "All you can eat, then what are we still doing here? Lead on!"

* * *

><p><em>Hotel, 12: 19 pm<em>

Yugito Nii let the armour fall off and revealed her clothing underneath it a she let the Genjutsu over her hair faded and it went back to blonde. The woman took off her glasses and made her way over to the desk in the room before grabbing the journal on it and started to write in it.

"Day 1; used the younger Uzumaki's need to help against him by attacking rec building and forced his hand. It was a success and I have been able to gouge some knowledge that he is capable is using a Jonin ranking jutsu and has an affinity for wind, a rare one found in Fire country.

"Mission to convert both Uzumaki's to Kumo's allegiance still in the working stages. Too soon to tell anything discernible and the elder one will be much more difficult to approach as his half-demon senses will alert him to my neko tenant by the scent that all hosts give off. Plan though must be well thought out before deciding to approach the elder one. And I will continue to gouge the strength of the younger one as Iron Maiden." Yugito read aloud before closing the journal and started to think over her two targets.

Neither would be easy to win over, and being Iron Maiden certainly wouldn't help matters, but all she needed to do was work her way into their relative good graces and convince them to side with Kumo. She wasn't asking for loyalty on the Raikage's behalf, as he'd been certain neither Uzumaki would be too happy with any Hidden villager after Konoha, but merely to be allies, as he's also realized that both would be incredibly powerful if given enough time to learn.

Yugito had her reservations about the last part, but she did admit that Naruto had shown some promise, even if he did have a thing for banter. But oh well, so did she when she could cut lose. And giving her rank was on purpose should he tell his brother about their encounter and he come after her himself to see how they measure up.

Yugito was damn certain though that boy was no Chunin level ninja, no matter _what_ his rank was. And if it took an actual fight to gouge his power level, then so be it.

* * *

><p><em>Forest Hills, 1:15 pm<em>

Naruto walked down the street, going home after having lunch with Kitty and he could honestly admit he'd had a great time. Though a frown did come over his face as he thought about his fight with Iron Maiden and what rank she told him she was at.

He knew he couldn't have beaten her even if the sirens hadn't interrupted them. He couldn't even beat Kakashi, so he had no chance against her. Kira probably did, but since even _Naruto_ had no idea just what level his brother was at, he couldn't be sure.

It wasn't that he didn't take an interest in his brother's life, or vice versa, but after Kira attained Chunin, he just seemed to stop caring about _how_ powerful he got or what his rank was as he just wanted to stay strong enough to keep his own power in check.

Naruto had seen only once what Kira was like when he lost control, and he was in no hurry to see that again.

The 'redhead' stopped in front of their mail box and saw that the flag was up. He opened it and lowered the flag as he took the mail out, showing that they were from the schools Kira had registered them in. He was about to go up the walk when an elderly woman came outside and seemed to be going over to the mail box in front of his house.

Naruto made his way over to the box and held one hand up. "It's okay, I'll get that." He said taking the mail out and walked over to the woman.

"Oh, what a kind young man you are." The woman said smiling kindly.

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Thank you," he said before realizing what house was next to theirs, "and are you Peter's aunt, the one who made the cookies?"

"Oh, you know Peter?" The woman asked.

"He seemed nice enough." Naruto replied shrugging. "And I'd just like to thank you for the cookies."

"Oh, you and your brother have such good manners." The woman said smiling. "Would you like to come inside for some tea?"

Naruto blinked, and while Kira told him not to go with strangers, he felt he should at least make an effort to know their neighbours as they both seemed nice enough. If it had been out in the city he'd know better, but he wasn't stupid enough to think that danger could be anywhere.

The villagers had taken any shots they could to remind him that he _lived_ with a very real danger, one that Naruto knew could be _very_ dangerous if pushed to it, but otherwise they never saw the side only he saw.

"Sure if you don't mind some company." Naruto said following her inside and took a seat at the table while the woman went over to the stove and poured two cups of tea.

The sound of feet descending the steps was heard and Peter came into the room. "Hey Aunt May…" he said trailing off as he spotted the 'redhead.' "Oh hi there Naruto, how are you?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Can't complain, you?"

Peter also shrugged. "Same."

Aunt May sat down at the table and put the other cup in front of Naruto. "And how is your brother?"

"He's…tired." Naruto answered carefully. "He's just been really worried about our mom and deserves some time to rest."

"Oh, is your mother ill?" Aunt May questioned sympathetically.

Naruto shook his head. "She's in the hospital, but she just woke up from a coma." He answered quietly. "She's been in one since I was born, and my brother was the only one who was ever there."

"What about your dad?" Peter asked softly.

Naruto let out a sigh. "He died an hour after I was born." He said wryly. "So my birthday is never exactly a happy reminder of what happened." He said morosely before blinking. "Oh, I'm sorry for bringing you both down. I didn't mean to, it's just that…"

"No, it's understandable to miss someone you care about." Aunt May said kindly.

Naruto nodded absently before Peter blurted out, "Is that why your brother's so cold?"

"Peter!" Aunt May admonished sharply.

"No, he right; Kira-nii was never a nice person since I could remember. Well, not _that_ nice, but he just isn't a people person." Naruto replied. "And yet I wonder how he's going to deal with being in Midtown for the fall."

Peter's eyes widened. "Your brother's going to Midtown?"

Naruto nodded. "You go there?"

"Uh, yeah I do." Peter replied awkwardly. "And, I wouldn't mind showing your brother around the school if he doesn't mind hanging out with me."

Naruto thought hard about how to answer this. "Kira-nii…_wouldn't_ mind hanging around you, but don't expect him to _talk_ to you."

Peter shrugged. "Hey, it's high school."

Naruto had no idea what the brunet was talking about, but nodded along with it anyway.

_(#Action Pack Issue 8: As both Naruto and Kira try and find a way to talk to each other about the bounty on their heads as they visit their mother in the hospital. Meanwhile, Yugito takes a step up in her mission to test Naruto's strength.) _


	8. Chapter 8

_# Action Pack Issue 8_

_July 3, 8:10 am-Uzumaki Residence _

Naruto yawned as he walked down the stairs in his blue pajamas with his night cap on his head. While childish, it had been one of the only real present Kira had been able to afford for him. He saw his brother also in his night clothes, blue cotton pants and a black shirt as he stood over the stove and the smell of bacon his nose.

"Hmm, something smells good." He commented, and while there was no answer, he still smiled. When he was younger he had taken the silence as Kira being mad at him about something, but then slowly realized that his brother wasn't a morning person and it _wasn't_ him he was angry at.

The blond sat down at the table and noticed the catalogues on the table, Naruto realizing that Kira must have been reading them as he cooked since the blond had put them on the counter yesterday. He looked through the high school one and saw the registration form for the courses he wanted to take.

"Math, Science, P.E, and English? I get the Math and Science, even P.E, but why English?" Naruto questioned, and he honestly couldn't figure out why his brother would want to take a course about a language he already spoke.

Kira didn't answer as he turned off the stove and put the bacon on two plates before setting them onto the table and grabbed the high school courses booklet and showed Naruto the page his English course would be on. He went back to the stove when his brother let out a sound of understanding and poured the grease into a cup and poured themselves some orange juice before putting the pan into the sink and the cups of juice on the table.

Naruto took a sip before flipping the page on his own booklet open. "I met a friend yesterday." He began conversationally, and though Kira didn't respond, he continued on speaking anyway. "Her name's Kitty and she'd going to be going to the same school as me."

Kira took a bite out of his bacon and the last traces of morning crankiness seemed to evaporate from his face. "That's nice, Naruto-kun."

Naruto smiled as he took another sip of his drink and continued looking through his own catalogue. "We also decided to meet in the park tomorrow, if that's okay with you."

Kira nodded his head as he took a sip of his own drink before answering. "Yes, I trust you to follow the rules." He said before frowning to himself as he wondered how to broach this next subject. "Naruto-kun, have you noticed anything…odd going on?"

Naruto almost choked on his bacon and had to wash it down with his juice and tried to look inconspicuously innocent. "No, I have not." He said neutrally, but a bead of sweat started to form on his brow when he saw Kira's stare right into his eyes and he cringed back. "Okay…maybe a little odd, but its New York apparently; weird stuff always seems to happen here from what Kitty told me."

Kira narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything more on the matter, deciding to wait until after he had more time to ponder how to tell him that there was a bounty on their heads from their former 'home.'

Naruto kept eating his breakfast and watched as his brother finished up his before putting it in the sink and started washing the dishes. "So," he began awkwardly, "when do you start your job?"

Kira didn't answer, and the blond thought this was something his brother wasn't _going_ to say anything until he actually _did_ speak up. "I start today." He muttered, and while Kira's back was to him, Naruto could almost imagine his brother glaring at the wall. "My new manager was willing to give me a shift starting at 1 so I could go in after lunch." He explained.

Naruto nodded, before stopping as he realized Kira couldn't see it. "I see."

"But I thought we could go visit Kaa-chan after we get dressed." Kira said.

Naruto looked up and smiled, but this time he didn't feel embarrassed about his brother not seeing it. "Sure, I'll go do that now." he said finishing up his breakfast and put his dish into the sink and headed up the stairs.

* * *

><p><em>Hotel, 9:30 am<em>

Yugito ate her room service breakfast as she thought about how to test Naruto's strength and got up on her bed to grab her journal and looked through her notes on the research she did before actually confronting Naruto as Iron Maiden.

Her eyes narrowed as she read about the other superhero in New York and how 'Black Fox' seemed to be in some form a teammate to this 'Spider-Man' fellow and how they both took down criminals together. She garnered that this Spider character must mean something to the younger Uzumaki, as she knew that battle could forge bonds of camaraderie.

It also left a weakness to exploit if it was ever learned about.

With her mind made up on how to test Naruto's _real_ strength, Yugito finished up her breakfast and started to check through her supplies to make sure she was prepared for what she was about to do.

* * *

><p><em>Times Square, 1:19 pm<em>

Spider-Man had just been out doing errands for his aunt when this nut job that wore a metallic suit like Joystick just showed up and started going on a rampage for no good reason. Then again, what real reason did these psychos have reasons for doing what they did?

He clung to the wall of a building and launched a web line at the debris the woman had grabbed and was about to throw. He pulled it back and when she looked up, he just wagged his finger like an adult scolding a child. "Now, don't you know you know it's a crime to be going on senseless rampages?" he asked, completely the image of a scolding parent with condescension lacing his voice.

The woman didn't freak out like the crooks he took down normally, just smirked and Spider-Man felt a chill go down his spine. "Oh, I know it's wrong, but how else was I supposed to get one of you superheroes out here?" she questioned and her hands flashed through odd shapes that reminded him of what Black Fox did. "Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration!" she yelled and electricity seemed to begin dancing along her metallic suit and she raised her hands before firing bolts of electricity at him.

Spider-Man dodged as he swung over her and knew better than to try and go hand to hand with the woman as if she could do what Fox could, then he wasn't about to risk it until he was sure he had a chance to land a punch. The costumed hero sent another web line at her and let the webbing keep flying as he swung around her and it pinned her arms to the side. "Had enough?"

The woman grinned as she ripped through the webbing. "Please, who do think you are?" she sneered and shot more electrical bolts at him before jumping up at him, tossing out several shuriken at him.

Spider-Man quickly swung out of the way and saw the shuriken embed themselves into the granite and the woman cling to the wall as well. "Someone who's obviously in over his head." He replied trying to keep his bravado up, but traces of nervousness started creeping into his voice.

"You have no idea." The woman replied and in a burst of speed, she appeared in front of him and hit Spider-Man on the skull with enough force to send him plummeting toward the ground and hit a car that 'cushioned' his landing, his eyes growing weaker and blurrier as he saw the woman's silhouette get closer and closer.

* * *

><p><em>New York General, 10: 04 am<em>

While Kushina had been bored of having to sit around in her hospital, seeing her boys coming into the room made her day just a that much brighter. She wouldn't deny that knowing she'd never see Minato come through that door to see her still hit her hard, but she had gradually started to accept the reality she was in.

Her boys were still alive, that was all that mattered at the moment.

"How are you two today?" she asked as Naruto took his seat on her bed and Kira sat on the chair beside it.

"We're fine Kaa-chan, but yesterday Kira was going through his human phrase." Naruto answered bluntly.

Kushina looked over at Kira, who was determinedly not looking at her. "You do realize that this doesn't make me think any less of you, right? I was after all the one who kept watch over you when you were younger and had been going through this." She answered softly.

Kira looked up briefly. "I know Kaa-chan, it's just I thought I wouldn't still fall asleep for the whole day." He muttered.

"It's in your physiology to be tired once a month." Kushina answered and while Kira didn't look interested, Naruto looked it for the both of them. "Ku-Kyuubi told me about half-demons and their biological structure when you were born. He said that your bodies needed time to heal up from the contamination of your demon half, the once a month thing being like a detox of sorts."

"You make it sound like there all poisoned." Naruto said scrunching his brow.

"We are poisoned." Kira muttered and Naruto looked over at him. "I know I never let you see it, but just like if you use Kyuubi's chakra, you'll feel the effects; and while I won't get sick, it's during the one day a month that I really feel how much of a cost it is."

"Well, being nearly catatonic really does sound like a rotten repercussion." Naruto replied and his eyes widened a little. "Sorry Kaa-chan, I…uh…"

"It's okay." Kushina answered quietly as she ran her fingers through Naruto's hair. "The only thing I regret is not waking up sooner."

Kira's expression was blank, though he did start to feel off again. How pathetic was it that he couldn't even talk to his own mother since he wasn't used to hearing a reply, not to mention how she'd react to how he acted once she was out of the hospital.

"Kira-chan, Fishcake," Kira grimaced at the name and Naruto snickered, "I've been wondering; where did you two grow up?" Kushina questioned and saw both of their faces go neutral and felt a knot form in her stomach. "Who took care of you?"

Naruto didn't reply and Kira decided to take the reins for this one. "Naruto-kun, I think I saw a vending machine just down the hall." He said and Naruto practically flickered out of the room. Kira looked at his mother and while he always took some joy in saying how awful Konoha is, he wasn't going to this time. "Kaa-chan, you are aware of how I was never very popular with any in that place, right?"

Kushina nodded. "Yes, I remember this, but what…oh." She said faintly.

"Yeah," Kira said blandly, "Naruto got off better, as most just tried to ignore him, but there were still…isolated incidences."

Kushina clenched the sheet of her bed in her fists. "And where was your caretaker in all this?"

Seeing his mother's rage on their behalf made this just a little easier for Kira to explain how their lives turned out. "We didn't have one; many clan heads were willing to adopt Naruto-kun when they learned he was dad's son, but once I said that we were a package deal, the offers stopped. So I raised Naruto-kun myself."

Kushina stared at him with wide eyes before reaching over and pulling Kira into a hug. "You shouldn't have had to do it on your own." She said softly.

"In a way, I didn't." Kira replied. "I was only able to take care of Naruto-kun because of what you and dad taught me about childcare. And though I've never told Naruto-kun this, one of the reasons I took care of him in the first place was because I was scared. I wasn't scared _of_ him of course, but because I was terrified of losing the only part of my family that I still had left at the time." He didn't know why he was doing this, but maybe it had something to do with the fact after so long he was back in his mother's arms.

It brought a strange feeling to his chest that he only got with Naruto. He felt _happy_.

Kushina ran her fingers through Kira's hair, but her eyes had grown darker, not because of Kira, but because of Konoha and what she could imagine the village put them through for being different. As Kyuubi's former Jinchuuriki, she was no stranger to the cruelty others had for 'oddities.'

"We're here," she said slowly, "in New York, but what made you want to _come here_ in the first place? What happened?"

Kira reluctantly pulled back, as he needed her to see how severe this was. "Kaa-chan, do you think that we were the only ones they hated?" he asked quietly and Kushina's eyes showed recognition. "I got a notice from the Hokage that you were to be taken off life support; I brought you here so that wouldn't happen."

Kushina started shaking. "They hurt my children, and then they try to kill me," she said in a deceptively calm voice, "When I get out of here, we're going to go have a little talk with them."

"I'll look forward to it when the time comes." Kira replied deadpanning, though he genuinely was looking forward to seeing the looks on the faces of the Konoha council when they see Kushina awake and walking around, or more importantly, awake and angry at _them_.

Kushina's anger faded slightly before patting Kira on the shoulder. "Now go get your brother, I wanna hear about how you two have been settling in here in New York."

* * *

><p><em>New York Mall, 12:50 pm<em>

Kira walked down the mall hallway through the crowds of people toward his new job. He wasn't sure what exactly had possessed him to try and get a job at a clothing store, but he'd like the commission he'd get if he sold clothing along with the pay he'd receive for working.

The brunet arrived at the store and found the manager folding sweaters and went over to her. "Lara King, it's me, Kira Uzumaki reporting for my first day."

The woman looked up at him momentarily before gesturing for another girl to come over, this one having long wavy white hair and cat-like eyes. "Kira, this is Sharon, she'll show you around." Lara said as the girl nodded and smiled at him, the beginnings of canine teeth sticking out over her lip.

Kira sniffed and frowned at the smell, the girl also frowning momentarily when he saw her sniff, but grew surprisingly brighter while he found the smell suspicious. It was the scent of a cat, and he wondered what he had just gotten himself into before the girl grabbed his arm and started pulling him around.

As per anyone who grabbed him other than Naruto, Kira pulled his arm out of her grip, but she didn't seem deterred as Sharon started listing off what was what. "So we like change the mannequins after several day intervals to get people interested in the clothing and lucky for you we just got in a bunch of new stuff we get to sort through!"

Kira had a different opinion of what he considered 'lucky' but he also knew better than to say anything bad about this, as it _did_ serve a purpose. "Is it possible to store clothes away to buy at a later date?"

"You mean layaway?" Sharon questioned, and assuming that this is what the term was called, Kira nodded. "Oh, it is; you thinking of getting something for your girlfriend?"

Kira grimaced. "I don't have a girlfriend." He replied quietly and wondered why she would automatically assume that. "I was asking in case I see something that my brother would like."

"Aw." Sharon cooed and Kira felt the need to step back from this girl.

Kira once again thought about what on earth made him take this job; the discount, the money, or the hours? He really didn't know. The brunet looked around and furrowed his brow lightly. "Am…am I the only guy _working_ here?"

_#8 "A Friend in Need"_

_Uzumaki Residence, 2:10 pm_

Naruto was looking over his catalogue as his clones were out in the back finishing up the tunneling technique and the ice disk one. The blond heard the door knock and got up to walk over to it and when he answered, he saw Aunt May standing there, a worried look on her face. "Um, hello Mrs. Parker, is there something you needed?"

"Oh, I was wondering if you've seen Peter, I asked him to go get groceries, but he hasn't come back yet." Aunt May replied.

Naruto blinked as he started to get a sinking suspicion. Iron Maiden knew who he was, and could have easily found him, what if she took Peter upon seeing that he was his neighbour? The 'redhead' could be overreacting, but he wasn't about to let someone get hurt because of the fact this woman was after him and his brother. "Don't worry; I'm sure he'll be back. In fact, I'll even go and look for him myself." He offered.

Aunt May smiled slightly. "Oh, I couldn't ask you to do that."

"No, really, it's okay." Naruto replied and 10 minutes later he was in the city after taking a taxi and looking around, feeling somewhat foolish for not having the faintest clue about where to start looking.

He briefly thought about looking for Peter as Black Fox, but that would raise many questions if he _did_ find him. He didn't think like a normal preteen, nor did Kira think like a normal teenager, so he had no reference to where Peter might have gone to.

He looked up at a convenient store sign and shrugged, thinking this would be a starting point. He looked around the isles as he tried to see if any of the patrons were Peter, but accidently bumped into a blond woman as she was at the check-out line. "Oh, sorry miss."

"That's…alright." The woman said pausing for a short moment between words and picked up her bags before walking out the door, Yugito looking back at the 'redhead' for a moment as her eyes narrowed.

Naruto walked down another aisle and frowned as he decided that Peter wasn't here and walked out, only to hear the screaming from down the street and ran to see what was going on. He saw that Iron Maiden was back and doing what she had done yesterday: making senseless destruction.

Naruto knew that this was for him, but he couldn't very well pass up a chance to find where Peter was. He ducked into an alley and transformed his clothing back into his suit and dropped the henge over his features before running up onto the wall and landed on the roof before sprinting toward where Iron Maiden was.

"Alright, you got my attention, now stop this." He said landed on a ledge as he refused to get any closer to her, knowing that he couldn't beat her in hand-to-hand combat.

"Don't you wanna know where your friend the Spider is though?" Iron Maiden questioned sardonically.

Naruto froze at this. She had Spider-Man? Well, even if the person she had wasn't who he was looking for, Spidey was still his friend too. Even if the biggest reservation the guy had about him was only his age. He could go back to looking for Pete after he got Spidey away from this psycho. "Where is he?"

"As we speak he's slowly being held in a tube filled with water in the warehouse district, unit seven." Iron Maiden replied throwing a car at him and Naruto jumped to avoid getting hit. "You have a choice, go save your friend, or you can let him die while letting me go."

Naruto gritted his teeth. He couldn't let her escape, but he couldn't let his friend die either. "I'll get you." He said coldly.

Iron Maiden smirked. "We'll see." She replied and put on a look of vague concern. "Oh, and you only have 15 minutes to get there before he drowns, good luck." She sang mockingly as Naruto's eyes widened and he jumped back onto the roof and made a run for it.

Naruto only knew where the warehouse district was because of a map he'd bought at the mall in case he ever got lost or something. The blond wanted to punch Iron Maiden in her smug face for doing this to Spidey, it also made him think of her doing this to anyone else he cared about.

That's why he needed to stop her.

Naruto started growing angrier and he subconsciously drew on some of Kyuubi's power to make him move faster, only realizing what he was doing when he was almost there. Naruto tried to calm down enough to cut the power off, thought because of the line of thought he was thinking about it made it hard to do at first.

The blond landed on the ground, no trace of demonic chakra on him, and felt winded. He knew it was because of Kyuubi's chakra that this happened and he went looking for unit 7. He looked around the doors, only to find it at the end with a padlock on it.

Naruto let out a scream of frustration before he concentrated on the molecules in the air and it formed a transparent disk. He let the sunlight shine through it and due to pin point precision, the light formed a laser like blast that shot the padlock off the door.

Naruto didn't have time to smirk as he went into the warehouse and found Spider-Man banging on the tube he was in as the water was almost to his neck. "Spidey, hang on, I'm gonna get out you of there!"

"Can you hurry up with that?" Spider-Man questioned as his voice rose in panic when the water came up to his mouth and he had to keep his masked face up toward the roof of the tube.

Naruto pounded his fist experimentally on the see through wall before his brow furrowed and all the attacks he knew would either shatter the glass and hit Spidey, or… "I need you to hold your breath and go to the bottom of the tank!"

"What? Are you crazy?" Spider-Man shouted.

"Please, I need you to trust me." Naruto said earnestly.

Spider-Man paused as the space with the only breathing air was running out. "Fine, you better not let me die though." He said before taking a deep breath and sank down to the bottom of the tank.

Naruto flashed through several hand seals. "Wind Release: Air Bullets!" he shouted before sucking in a breath and letting several 'bullets' fly from his mouth and hit the tank with rapid force and went through the tank at the top an through the other side, the water starting to follow through the holes.

Spider-Man stood back up as he took a new breath of air from the top. "Fresh air!" he said dramatically and sucked in several breaths of air. "Wait, how are you going to get me out without the glass hurting either of us?"

Naruto smiled. "Like this." He said as he flashed through several more hand seals. "Earth Release: Tunneling Technique!" he yelled and dove toward the ground as he burrowed through the ground and made a hold underneath the tank and sent gravel flying from coming up into the tank. "Now come on." He said ducking back down and Spider-Man shrugged before jumping in and following after the blond. _'Wow, Kira-nii was right, this technique did end up helping me._' Naruto thought as he jumped out of the hole.

"Hey Fox, thanks for saving me, I really appreciate it." Spider-Man said sincerely.

Naruto tried not to cringe as he was the reason that Spidey had been captured. "No problem Spidey…" he trailed off as he noticed the camera in the corner and glared. "Looks like we were being watched this whole time." He said coldly.

"Psycho lady is just sick in the head." Spider-Man said shaking his head.

"I couldn't agree more; all she does is cause destruction and doesn't care about if people get hurt." Naruto agreed and took out a kunai. "Well know this Iron Maiden, I'm gonna get you." He said throwing the weapon and it hit the camera dead on.

"_We're_ going to get her; I'm not letting you face that whacko alone." Spider-Man said sternly.

Naruto stared at him, about to rebuke this declaration before he realized that maybe together, they _could_ beat Iron Maiden. "Yeah, _we're_ going to get her." He repeated nodding.

* * *

><p><em>Uzumaki Residence, 3:15 pm<em>

Naruto walked sullenly down the street toward his house as he thought about his search being a bust as he couldn't find Peter. He sure hoped the guy was okay and Iron Maiden _hadn't_ also taken him hostage like she had with Spider-Man.

And then there was how he eventually had to tell Kira about the whole bounty thing on them.

"Hey kid, why the long face?"

Naruto blinked as he saw Peter himself walking up beside him. "I was out looking for you, your aunt came by and said that you hadn't come home; you really shouldn't worry her like that." He admonished.

A look of guilt creased Peter's forehead as he looked down. "I know; it's just…something came up and I couldn't call her."

"Don't worry, you're alright, and that's all that matters." Naruto pointed out and his eyes narrowed when he saw that Peter's hair was matted down and wet, but decided not to say anything about it. "Well, later man." He said instead and the 'redhead' made his way into his own home and his thoughts whirled.

The matted wet hair could just be a coincidence, what are the odds that Peter could have gone swimming when Spider-Man was in the tank? It's not _Peter_ was Spider-Man…right?

_(# Action Pack Issue 9: As Kushina begins her physical therapy, Kira begins to find out strange things about Sharon. Meanwhile, Iron Maiden's arc comes full circle as she makes one last stand against Spider-Man and Black Fox.)_

* * *

><p>Author Notes: This story can expect to have characters integrated from other Marvel comics as the plot progresses.<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

_# Action Pack Issue 9_

_July 4, 12: 35-New York General_

Kushina pushed her tray away from her as she finished up her meal and supplement drink. She's had a hard time going to the washroom in her room, as it was awkward since she had to keep her hands on the wall to make it there. Though the thought of getting out of the hospital made her put up with all this; she'd never been very patient, and she certainly didn't like feeling weak.

Her situation with her children was at the forefront of her mind; if she'd been awake sooner she could have stopped them from ever getting hurt, not to mention she probably would have burned Konoha to the ground herself if given the chance.

Speaking of which, she thought she might still do that.

She heard the door open and Doctor Reyes walked in. "And are you ready to start your physiotherapy?"

Kushina nodded and pulled the blanket off her as she had put the robe on during her first trip to the washroom. She allowed the doctor to help her out of bed and hoped she had retained _some_ of the healing factor she once had to help move this process along quickly.

She felt guilty enough about missing out on her children's childhoods without missing anymore.

* * *

><p><em>New York Mall, 12:45 pm<em>

The first thing Kira understood about mall economics was that the lunch rush was like a shark tank.

He was also glad that he thought to bring his own lunch with him as he really didn't want to touch American fast food. It had nothing to do with the food itself, but from his experience with ramen it showed that his body burned off calories very fast and he ended up hungry almost an hour later.

It was the reason that he and Naruto ate so many bowls of ramen when he couldn't get his hands on a real meal.

"It's so busy, don't you think?"

Kira glanced up at Sharon as she saw down in front of him, smiling beatifically, but her scent still gave him trouble. She smelled too much like a cat for his taste. "Yes, it is."

"So you don't buy anything here?" Sharon asked curiously.

Kira shook his head. "No." he stated bluntly.

Sharon pouted at his blunt reply as she didn't get anything else out of him before digging into her sushi meal. "Mmm, this is good, sure you don't want soooome?" she sang.

Kira leaned back as she wagged the roll in front of his face and gently pushed her hand out of his face. "No, I don't."

"You're no fun, why is that?" Sharon persisted.

Kira raised a brow. "We don't know each other, so it stands to reason that I wouldn't tell you that."

"But we could know each other." Sharon said smirking at him, and Kira saw her fangs peeking over her lips before brushing it off again.

"I'm not sure I want to know you in the way _you_ want." Kira shot back and Sharon's pout deepened.

"You're no fun, don't you know how to live a little?" she questioned and Kira's eye started to tick.

Is _that_ why she was bugging him about this? He didn't like people on principle, but he especially disliked _annoying_ people. It was the reason he didn't like Sakura so much, that and she hit his brother all the time in the past.

He felt a pang of guilt at that. He was going to need to have a serious talk with Naruto that it _was_ okay to tell him things that were important-like if people hit him or hurt him in any way-and he wouldn't get angry. _At him_, anyway.

Kira was a lot of things, and has been _called_ just as many, but no one can ever say he's not a good brother.

"I'm not really into, 'fun.'" Kira replied after a moment of thought.

Instead of deterring her, Sharon merely smiled wider. "Well I guess now that we're co-workers I can change that."

"And the reason you've taken to hanging around me is…?" Kira trailed off to give the girl a chance to explain herself.

"That's easy; you're the only dude working in the store." Sharon replied rolling her eyes. "And that matters a lot to female customers."

"I fail to see how." And Kira really didn't get it, because when you're a ninja, you don't generally _care_ about who sells you your things so long as they're good to last.

"You're so oblivious." Sharon said sighing and Kira felt vaguely like he should be insulted.

* * *

><p><em>Park, 12:50 pm<em>

"Huh, what's everybody doing?" Naruto questioned as he looked around at the people setting up some kind of contraption.

"They're getting ready to launch the fireworks." Kitty explained. "It's the Fourth of July."

"Yeah, I know that." Naruto replied, but his expression was still blank. "Why is this day so special that you only get to use fireworks now?" Granted, even back in Konoha he still couldn't use fireworks, not when he and Kira had to rebuild their apartment after some drunken villager shot a fire into the place on one of the Kyuubi festivals.

Kitty decided that since Naruto wasn't from America originally that he might not know, she just broke it down into one simply sentence. "It's an American holiday is all."

"If it's a holiday, then why are there still people working?" Naruto questioned.

Kitty blinked in confusion. "That's…that's a good question actually." She said before shrugging. "Maybe it's an exception or something?"

Naruto nodded along absently before glancing over at where the fireworks would be let off. "What time does this start anyway?"

"Later at night." Kitty said and brightened up. "Hey, maybe I'll even see you there; I'll be going with my parents."

Naruto doubted that Kira would let him go to see fireworks with someone he had just met as much as he was sure his brother wouldn't let him continue to fight crime if he knew what he was doing when he was supposed to be asleep. "Maybe, but I doubt it."

"Well, if you can make then I'll save you a spot on the grass." Kitty said smiling and Naruto found himself smiling back.

"I'd like that."

_#9 "Iron Maiden"_

_Hotel, 3:20 pm_

Yugito started to bunch her hair up into its bun before putting the metal plating on herself and jutsuing her hair black. She adjusted the visor on her face before picking up the blue prints she'd nicked from posing as a worker at the park earlier in the afternoon.

She looked it over and saw that with all the people that would most likely be there, it was the perfect place to stage her final appearance as Iron Maiden.

Her plan was relatively simple, lure Naruto out and make him fight her with everything he had, Kyuubi's power included. Of course to lure him out she had to do something that would draw enough attention that would need 'superheroes' to intervene.

Yugito eyed the area where the fireworks were going to be let off. A lot of explosions could be caused with just the right amount of pressure. She wouldn't actually need to do anything destructive since she could just make it _look_ like she was blowing things up, but it needed to be _very_ realistic, and she had no idea how things might go here.

Naruto wouldn't show if she didn't put people in _real_ danger after all. And after his low growl before smashing her camera with his kunai, she was actually looking forward to just _how_ much he matched up to her in terms of power.

By all means though she knew that if _she_ went into the fight at full power there was no contest by the sheer fact she had the _experience_ to use Nibi's chakra whereas Naruto most likely didn't.

But she digressed; she was going to lure him out with explosives, all that needed to be done was hijack a suitable news station for her to broadcast the challenge as she wasn't _trying_ to be subtle in the least about getting Naruto's attention.

And while she might not be able to work the cable herself, it didn't mean that she couldn't get some techie on staff to do it for her. After all, people will do anything if they think it will let them live.

Now was the time to act.

* * *

><p><em>New York General, 1:43 pm<em>

"Mrs. Uzumaki, you're making rather remarkable progress." Dr. Reyes said in slight awe as Kushina had managed to walk the line without needed assistance for the second time.

Kushina grinned sheepishly. "Well, I've always been a bit of a quick healer." Understatement of the century. And while she wanted to contribute her drive to walk without wobbling to being able to leave with her children, she knew in actuality it was Kyuubi's remaining power in her that was the cause.

But that still didn't mean she didn't want to see her children any less of course. Because she did, and the sooner she was able to leave the hospital the better.

"Will I be able to leave soon then?" Kushina asked excitedly.

Dr. Reyes gave the woman a kind smile. "If you keep up the good work then you'll definitely be able to."

Kushina smirked and continued to do just that.

* * *

><p><em>New York Mall, 3:14 pm<em>

After Kira's shift was over, he stuck around to search out some clothing that might fit his mother until she could be able to go buy the clothes herself. And seeing as he'd once let Naruto outside in the atrocious orange jumpsuit, he didn't exactly have the best taste in clothes.

Or the most money to pay the unfair prices, but that's what a five-finger discount was for; and all things considered he could have done something much worse to the store merchant. _A lot_ worse, but he wouldn't dwell on that.

Right now it was about finding something his mother would like.

Kira picked up a soft material garment that looked like a safe bet as he recognized it as a t-shirt in a deep red. Well, it matched his mother's hair at least. He looked over the neatly folded stacks before pulling up a pair of kakis that his mother might be able to fit.

The brunet made his way over to the counter where Lara was manning the register. He really didn't want to talk, but he knew he had too. He'd already been given a warning earlier for brushing off customers simply because he didn't feel like having an idle chat with them.

"How much for these?" he questioned handing the woman the clothes.

Lara grabbed them and looked them over before putting them through the register. "With employee discount it comes to a total amount of…$20.50."

Kira paused in retrieving his wallet and remembered what Sharon had told him about the high prices for some of these things.

"_If you want low prices, go to the bargain bin or something."_ She'd said, reminding him distinctly of how the merchants regarded him on with what he wanted to buy back in Konoha.

It was one of the reasons he didn't exactly _like_ the woman despite the girl's best efforts to do otherwise.

Kira bit back a retort as he wordlessly paid the woman behind the counter and received his change in reply. He took the back and headed for the exit, not bothering to offer a thank you, nor had Lara seemed to be expecting one either.

The brunet walked through the mall, wondering what to make for dinner, but as soon as he got outside he ran to the nearest alley and took to the wall, running up the nearest building side to avoid having to waste any more money while he had two perfectly functioning feet to get him where he wanted to go.

He put up the default Genjutsu to keep people from seeing that it was a _person_ jumping across the rooftops should they look up and made his way down to the backyard of his home when and stopped the Genjutsu the moment he entered the house.

"Naruto-kun, are you here?" he called, but received no reply, so he assumed that his brother was still out with his new friend.

Who just happened to be a _girl_.

Kira set the clothes down on a chair and began taking out a package of chicken, thinking of making chicken stir fry with rice and curry. It'd give him something to do anyway.

* * *

><p><em>Uzumaki Residence, 4:23 pm<em>

Naruto opened the door to his home, the smell of chicken making his mouth water and he heard his stomach growl. He'd spent an awesome day with his friend, and now he was home with his awesome brother and about to eat an awesome meal.

"Kira-nii, I'm home!" he called closing the door behind him and taking his shoes off before setting them on the shoe rack. He walked into the kitchen and noticed the bag on the chair. "What's that?"

Kira looked up briefly from the stove to see what Naruto was pointing at. "Clothing for Kaa-chan to wear when she's able to leave the hospital."

"Oh, and how much did they cost you?" Naruto asked curiously, but from the way Kira stayed steadfastly silent told him it must have been expensive.

Or, expensive for _them_ as Kira had to store most of the money he'd made with his scratch ticket winnings in the bank to pay for the hospital bill.

"How long until dinner's ready?" Naruto questioned.

"Not long." Kira replied and noticed that Naruto had started fidgeting. "What do you want?"

Naruto glanced up innocently. "Why do you always assume I want something?"

"Because you fidget." Kira said bluntly.

Naruto silently cursed. He never knew he made it so obvious with how he must have wanted something, but he also knew that it just wasn't also his brother he was nervous around when he wanted something. He only fidgeted because he was afraid they'd turn him down.

But not Kira, he'd always give him anything he'd wanted.

"Um, there's this American tradition of letting fireworks off tonight, so I was wondering if I could go?" Naruto asked hopefully.

Kira didn't even glance up. "No."

With that one word, Naruto stared in shock at his brother. "What? Why not? Kitty's going to be there and she's saving a seat for when if I went!"

"Then I guess she won't be too disappointed when you don't turn up." Kira replied. "I'm not doing this just because; I'm doing it because I don't feel comfortable with letting you outside at night. A lot of things can go wrong."

Naruto clenched his fists at his sides, wanting to scream about how unfair Kira was being when his ire lost its fire quick. All his life Kira had been fair with him; he'd let Naruto go to the Academy, despite his best tries to dissuade him from it, he'd let him go outside period when he knew that nothing good would come from it.

Kira really had let Naruto do a lot of things he didn't want him to, so he supposed he could lay off just this once. And perhaps it was a long time fear, but he'd also always been afraid of Kira just up and leaving him if he ever did something bad.

"Alright." Naruto relented and realized how close he'd come to be a spoiled brat. He was spoiled yeah, but he wasn't a _brat_. "I understand."

Kira nodded before turning his attention back to the stove. "Glad you do."

* * *

><p><em>Channel Six News Station, 6:00 pm<em>

Iron Maiden looked around at the downed personnel that had been getting ready to report the news. Well she had other plans regarding this. The woman looked over at the cowering techie she left conscious and smirked. "Just get me on the air and you get to live, simple as that. No tricks or traps."

It was true, she could have easily just killed these people if she wanted to, but her mission wasn't to do that and instead test Naruto. But if he didn't beat her or show up then she really _was_ going to blow up some buildings to teach him a lesson.

The techie nodded in fear before he started to bring up the live feed and Iron Maiden appeared on camera. "You're live." He croaked out.

Iron Maiden smirked again before looking at the camera. "Hello, citizens of New York. I have interrupted this news broadcast to bring you an important announcement." She grinned, her 'fangs' showing more prominently and being the picture of malicious coyness. "I have rigged several explosives up to buildings and they will be detonated at exactly 7:30 tonight.

"That is unless," her grin widened and became a certified 'Cheshire-cat smile,' "The superhero known as Black Fox gets this warning as I will accept no other challenge. Oh, and any authorities who attempt to stop me, here in the news station, will be killed _on sight_."

Iron Maiden suddenly looked like the picture of innocence as her smile turned less psychotic and more Shirley Temple. If Shirley Temple wore an armor suit that is. "That's all folks." She sent the techie a glance and he got the hint to disconnect the feed.

"You're crazy." He whispered, but Iron Maiden's hearing still picked it up.

The woman smirked at him, her eyes narrowing behind her visor. "Oh, I know that, now you better get going before I change my mind about letting you live." She growled and the techie needed no more motivation to get his legs moving toward the exit.

Iron Maiden looked at the members of the remaining staff and grabbed each one by the back of their collars and proceeded to shove them into storage closets to keep them from interfering with her fight and out of her hair. She glanced at the clock and her grin returned.

'_Better hurry Naruto, the clock is ticking and I play for keeps.'_

* * *

><p><em>Uzumaki Residence, 6:04 pm<em>

Naruto quickly changed the channel as Kira came in from his trip to the washroom and he got off the couch and handed him the remote with a nervous smile. "Gonna go get a head start on sorting my things out for school!"

"But school doesn't start for another month." The brunet pointed out, but Naruto was already rushing up the stairs. Kira rolled his eyes before sitting down on the couch and looking back at the television. He knew Naruto wouldn't go to the fireworks show so there was nothing for him to worry about.

Naruto pulled on the black jacket and pants before pulling the hood up as there was no need for him to hide his true form in the house. He opened the window and took out the map from his pocket, always carrying it so he could find where he needed to go on the dot.

The blond found where Channel Six Station was and jumped out the window, grabbing the top of the window and flipping himself to the top the roof before running off to stop Iron Maiden. He didn't bother with the Genjutsu to keep himself covered and soon enough the reason why showed up to swing along the buildings beside him.

"You saw her message too huh?" Spidey questioned.

"Yup." Black Fox replied as he didn't take his eyes off the roof top. "It's time to finally take Iron Maiden down."

"You said it Fox." Spider-Man replied.

Black Fox glanced at him from the corner of his hood. "Fox?" he repeated.

"Uh, sorry, just a force of habit." Spider-Man said sheepishly. "I nickname, get it?"

Black Fox blinked slowly before smiling slightly. "Yeah, I get it." He said before the smile was wiped from his face as he noticed the building coming up. "Just in there is the solution to all of this."

"That's one way of looking at it." Spidey muttered, but Black Fox really couldn't rebuke him on that.

Iron Maiden might have caused this mess, but _he_ was the reason she was doing this.

And really, he felt guilty enough as it was.

"So how should we do this? Attack her head on or be stealthy instead?" Spider-Man suggested.

Black Fox didn't even pause. "It doesn't matter, she _knows_ we're coming so stealth is out." He paused in thought. "But she doesn't know _you're_ here. Okay, so here's what we do..."

* * *

><p><em>Channel Six News Station, 6:20 pm<em>

Iron Maiden stared at the security footage that was centered on the building and she grinned upon seeing Naruto arrive on the roof, his face rather serious for a 12 year old. But that wasn't her problem, no, what she had to do was 'disappear' as it were and head back to Kumo to give her extensive report on Naruto.

It was only a shame she couldn't test the demon's power though.

Well, one thing at a time as the saying goes.

Iron Maiden rose from the seat to go and meet with Naruto. "You actually came." She didn't sound surprised in the least because if he _hadn't_ come…

"You're damn right I did; no way I'm gonna let you hurt anyone!" Black Fox snapped.

Iron Maiden held up a hand and did the 'bring it on' gesture. "The try and stop me."

Black Fox shot at her with his enhanced speed, but the woman still saw him coming and she casually backhanded him across the face and sent him reeling back. The teen held his cheek from the stinging and glared at Iron Maiden, who only kept on smirking at him, this time looking more condescending.

"Is that really all you can do?" she mocked.

Black Fox got back to his feet before his glare turned into a slow smirk. "Actually, no, now!" he shouted and Iron Maiden turned on her heeled, only to get webbed up and her arms pinned to her sides.

The woman's surprise faded quickly and she laughed mockingly. "Fool, do you really think this is enough to hold me?" she asked before trying to tear the webbing off, but frowned as he still stretched out, only it didn't _break_. "What…?"

"Yeah, isn't that a nice little surprise?" Spider-Man quipped. "I made that especially for you."

Iron Maiden growled. "How nice." She hissed sarcastically.

"Now why don't you be a good little psycho and make this easier for all of us and say how to stop the bombs." Black Fox said.

Iron Maiden paused in her struggling to smirk. "Okay, I'll tell you…" she trailed off. "It's right…here!" she yelled before her hands crackled with electricity and bolts of it shot out at the two superheroes.

"Man, what does it take to bring this woman down?" Spider-Man muttered as he and Black Fox regrouped.

"We restrict her movement and she _still_ manages to get one up on us." The blonde agreed. He then blinked and the idea came to him. "Whether she can't electrocute herself doesn't matter as her suit is _still_ made of metal! We can shock her!"

Spider-Man glanced down at him. "And how do you suggest we do _that_ when we won't be able to get near her without being shocked ourselves by _her_?"

Black Fox still had the audacity to smile. "That's easy; you go out and distract her."

Spider-Man shook his head. "No way, Fox; _I'll_ get electrocuted."

Black Fox rolled his eyes. "Then just _don't_, and you are the best trash talker between the both of us." He shrugged. "Just rile her up."

"If I get creamed, I'm blaming you." Spidey muttered before swinging into the fray and landed on the ceiling above the woman. "Know something, you're not so tough when you're down there!" he said mockingly.

The woman looked up before sending a bolt of electricity at him that sent a whole through the wall.

"Okay, I stand corrected." Spider-Man said nervously as the shot almost took his head off.

Black Fox scurried over to the power lines connected to the cameras and pulled the sparking wires out, activating his rock armor to absorb any rebounding shocks to him and silently moved to the back of Iron Maiden as she was busy trying to electrocute Spider-Man.

He noticed something attached to the belt of her suit and in one leap, he jumped at her and shoved the wires into a crevice in the shoulder and swiped the device at her belt. He jumped away as sparks started moving along her armor and she let out a scream and the sparking grew worse and worse until she was little more than one big sparking blob and the electricity flared out and the armor clattered to the ground and the electricity shot into the sky.

Black Fox frowned as he looked at the smoking armor. "I wanted her stopped, but not like this." He whispered. He'd never taken a life; he'd watched it _get_ taken back in Wave, but not by his own hand.

Spidey gently clasped his shoulder. "She's stopped," he tried to sound supportive, but it still came out shaky himself, "the bombs."

Black Fox nodded slightly and looked down at the device in his hand and saw the numbers counting down before pressing the button on it and the numbers stopped. This victory felt hollow and he felt a bile rise in his throat. He ran over to a garbage basket and threw up the contents of his stomach.

Black Fox was hyper aware of the fact Spider-Man was still with him and he groaned. "Don't look at me." he whispered.

The red and blue hero ignored this and started patting the blond on the back. "You're still just a kid, I shouldn't have let you do that." he said softly.

_Just a kid…_

Black Fox clutched the bin and threw up again, the feeling of self-loathing coming back with a vengeance. "My fault, don't blame yourself."

And even now, it still _was_ his fault.

* * *

><p><em>New York Airport, 8:00 pm<em>

"Good evening Miss, are you comfortable?" The flight attendant asked.

The blonde smiled as she took a sip of her water and swallowed the sushi. "Actually, I am." She said beaming.

Yugito found that things worked out so much better if you just sent a lightning clone to do the dirty work _for_ you. The end result was the same every time.

_(# Action Pack Issue 10: As the summer moves on, Kira notices the odd change in Naruto's behavior and soon thinks it's time for a talk just as their mother is ready to be released from the hospital. Though when yet another assassin is ready to try and claim the bounty, it's time for all secrets to come out into the open.)_


	10. Chapter 10

_# Action Pack Issue 10_

_August 12, 9:15 am-Uzumaki Residence_

The summer had moved along smoothly, and as the season started its transition to fall, Kira found this weather strange. It was never particularly cold in Konoha, and while he didn't very much _care_ about the weather, he noticed Naruto spending more and more time in his room.

It was greatly worrying as usually _he_ was the one who spent their time being anti-social. His little friend Kitty called, Naruto having apparently given her their number, but the blonde didn't really feel like talking to anyone.

It was just after July 20 that Kira noticed something was wrong with his brother. He was unusually somber and it looked like it hurt dearly to smile. Then there was his training. Kira had given Naruto a new control exercise to work on called water walking and filled a blow up pool with water, but his brother didn't just seem to care.

Kira loved his brother, and he'd hurt anyone who said otherwise, but he honestly didn't know _what_ to do. Should he talk to him? Whenever he'd been upset he'd had no one to go to and tried to push it all aside and deal with it on his own.

And look how well _that_ turned out.

He didn't want his brother to be like that, like _him_. He seriously reconsidered leaving Naruto alone, but managed to get Naruto out of bed and eat something with the promise that their mother was finally being released from the hospital.

If only for a moment, Kira thought he saw Naruto smile at the thought of their mother coming to live with them, but it was gone before he could be sure.

The brunet glanced up at the clock and quickly finished up his breakfast as Kushina was going to be ready to leave at 9:45 and it generally took half-an hour to get to the hospital, and while neither liked waiting, their mother was worth it.

He'd always felt so weal when it came to his mother because he couldn't _do_ anything to help but sit there and feel helpless. Kira had always seen Naruto looked up at him with such admiration for being the 'stronger' sibling and never letting anything faze him.

But that wasn't true.

Every time Naruto went outside a part of him wanted to follow and make sure he stayed safe since he couldn't count on anyone else to do it. A part of him wanted so much to keep him away from all the indifferent or nasty glares that people generally only reserved for _him_.

Yes, it was crucial for Naruto to learn his independence, but every time he hugged him he didn't want to let him go thinking it would be the last time he'd do it. Instead he'd just pat him on the head or push him away.

Naruto didn't seem to mind, but Kira did, and he hated himself for doing it.

But now the brunet worried if Naruto was acting like this _because_ of the fact he was so distant half the time, despite how loving he tried to be.

Kira glanced down at Naruto, who was sitting at the table and slowly eating his cereal as he lacked his distinctive happy mood. "It's time to go." He said quietly.

Naruto didn't answer and morosely nodded as he put his dish into the sink and they both headed for the door, grabbing the bag their mother's clothes were in. The cab Kira had called ahead for stopped at the curb and they both got in, the brunet closing the door behind him.

Kira began to feel distinctly uneasy by how his brother was acting. He didn't like seeing his brother act so much like…_himself_. That was it, the reason he thought seeing Naruto like this felt so wrong. Kira _knew_ the reason behind how he was, but what made _Naruto_ start acting like this?

The brunet wasn't all that good at communicating with people on an emotional level, even his own brother. He could _empathize_ with him of course, he'd let the boy hug him all he wanted when he was sad, but he just wasn't all that comfortable with actually talking.

Mostly because a hug really was all that was needed previously; but he knew that a simple hug wasn't going to cut it this time.

So Kira resolved with himself to talk with Naruto later, as in all honestly an actual _talk_ was long overdue.

_#10 "His World"_

"Hi Kaa-chan, ready to go?" Naruto asked in a subdued manner.

Kushina looked at him oddly before smiling nonetheless. "You bet Sochi!" she chimed and took the pile of clothes from Kira. "Just let me use the bathroom real quick and we can go."

"Okay." Naruto replied and Kira tried to think of any reason his brother might be acting like this.

He couldn't use the school excuse because Naruto had actually started looking forward to it after meeting Kitty, and he couldn't blame _her_ because Naruto also seemed to like the girl-in a friendship sort of way thank Kami.

Kira still wasn't ready for when Naruto came to him asking about his strange feelings he'd start having when puberty hit.

The brunet resisted the urge to blink as he thought maybe _that's_ why the 'redhead' was acting like this. It _could_ be puberty; he knew _he'd_ acted worse than he already did back then. But he'd reserve that for later thought.

Kushina walked back out of the washroom wearing her new clothes and smiled at them both, her smiling warming and brightening their respective sullen moods. "Okay, now we can go." She said.

Kira nodded, having already paid the hospital bill and signed the release form; he decided not to tell either of them just how much the bill had been as he didn't want either of them to worry. He'd always been the 'parent' and that wasn't going to stop now that his mother was awake.

He knew she'd still need time to adjust and wasn't going to push her to accept her new role as a single parent to one teenager and one pre-teen. So until then he'd remain in his current stand-in parent duty that he'd had for the last 12 years of his life.

Not that he'd ever _trade_ those years for anything of course.

"Kaa-chan, will you be teaching us anything?" Naruto asked, though it sounded more like he just wanted to hear her voice than anything she was going to say.

Kushina though just talked in stride. "Of course I am, Fishcake." She said and Naruto cringed at the nickname; it was the most normal reaction he'd had all morning. "Do either of you want to try and see what your elemental chakras are?"

Kira felt slightly guilty about that. "We already tested ourselves to see what we both had."

Kushina's smile faltered, but it returned brighter than before. "Then what _do_ you both have then?"

"I have wind, fire, and lightning chakras." Kira replied and when no answer came from Naruto, he nudged him in the side with his elbow.

The blonde blinked before answering as well. "I have wind, earth, and water chakras."

Kushina looked proud of this fact. "Well Fishcake, it seems that you take mostly after me in that department; you're chakras are suited to most of my jutsus." She paused and looked at Kira with a nervously repentant smile. "Uh, Kira-chan, it seems that…uh…"

"It's okay, it'll give you and Naruto time to spend together; just be sure to include me when it comes to something I can actually use." Kira replied before turning on his heel and making his way to the door.

Kushina paused as she stared at Kira's retreating back for a moment took Naruto by the shoulder and pulled him along with her to the exit as well.

The brunet felt a slight grimace on his lips before pushing it down as the three of them got back into the cab and he saw the cab driver look at Kushina from the rear view mirror before seeing Kira's glare and averted his eyes and started driving down the street.

Kira saw Kushina start to nervously wring her hands, and he really did feel bad, but he himself had no idea what to say right now. And Naruto was just looking out the window blankly, not in the talking mood either.

So that's how it went, because he was too uncomfortable about _wha_t to say, Kushina was too uncomfortable _to_ speak, and Naruto just didn't _want_ to speak. It stayed that way all through the drive back to their house.

When they arrived, Kira paid the cab driver and he watched Naruto run into the house, ignoring Peter as he was outside to get the mail for his aunt. "Is he okay?" Peter questioned as his hand that was posed in a wave fell to his side.

Kira tried to ignore the way the other brunet's eyes widened and his jaw dropped as he answered. "I'll have to check in on that."

"Right." Peter replied dazedly before a bright red flush came over his face as he gazed at Kushina. "Are you their sister or something?"

Kushina blinked, her purple eyes having been hidden behind a Genjutsu to make them appear green. She smiled as she realized what he was saying. "Aren't you sweet, but no, I'm their mother."

Peter's eyes went even wider. "Their _mother_, but…but…"

Kira rolled his eyes as he wanted to let out a frustrated sigh, but that wouldn't be necessary. "Yes, she's very young looking, but she _is_ our mother, so deal with it." He said coldly.

Peter flinched and Kushina frowned. "That wasn't very nice, Kira-chan."

Peter made a move to say something, but Kira glared at him, and he wisely kept his mouth shut. "I-I should be getting back inside now." He said before nearly sprinting back into his house.

"That is not how we treat neighbours, Kira-chan; he was just trying to be nice." Kushina chastised.

Kira turned up his nose. "Kaa-chan, you wouldn't be saying that it if you knew how our _old_ neighbours treated us." He felt guilty when Kushina winced, but she still needed to be reminded of _why_ he was acting the way he was as the last time she'd seen him he as just a little kid.

He sighed though as he realized that she _wasn't_ used to seeing such a stark contrast to how she remembered him. "Come on, we set up your room; and you can also use the shower to clean up." It amazed him that people still thought his mother was attractive even while her hair hadn't been washed in 12 years and she smelled rather bad, but of course he wasn't going to _say_ that.

Kushina narrowed her eyes momentarily before nodding curtly and headed inside, obviously having figured out what he was implying too.

Kira followed her up the stairs as he needed to talk to Naruto _now_; it was as good a time as any. He walked over to Naruto's room as Kushina went over to the only other bedroom on the second floor. "Naruto-kun?" he questioned knocking on the door.

"Hn?" Naruto groaned from inside despondently. "What is it?"

"I'm coming in." Kira replied and opened the door, finding Naruto lying on his side on his bed and staring out the window. Had this what he'd been doing up here for all this time? Kira suddenly felt a sense of worthlessness come over him as he realized he hadn't been very attentive at all during the last weeks with his job.

Well, it was time to change that.

"Naruto-kun, what's the matter?" he asked sitting on the edge of the bed near him.

"Don't want to talk about it." Naruto replied softly.

Kira wondered how he should proceed, as this was turning into something incredibly awkward and uncomfortable. Again, he was just used to previous problems being resolved by letting Naruto hug him for as long as he needed to.

The brunet wanted to smack himself. A hug might not _solve_ this, but maybe it would at least get his brother to feel secure enough for him to try and get out of him _why_he was so upset.

Naruto looked at him in confusion as Kira grabbed a hold of his arms, turned him around and lifted his upper half up before dragging him towards him. "What…?"

Kira pulled Naruto up to his chest and wrapped his arms around him securely, feeling the blond stiffen. "What's the matter? You can tell me you know." He said quietly and really _tried_ to make his voice sound as comforting as possible.

If possible, Naruto went even more still and soon his shoulders began shaking. "This isn't fair; you can't just…" his voice started to waver, "you can't just hug me anymore and expect to tell automatically tell you."

"It's working though." Kira pointed out and he saw Naruto's jaw clench, but Kira was willing to remain like this for him. "Just let it out, Kaa-chan is cleaning herself up from her stay in the hospital so she won't be able to be see you cry."

Naruto let out a sound that sounded suspiciously like a growl mixed in with a sob. "Not a cry baby."

"I know you're not." Kira said in agreement. "But it's okay to cry."

"You don't." Naruto retorted.

Kira remained silent on that. "I'm so messed up I can barely remember what it is to even cry anymore. You still have a chance to be normal; I _want_ you to have a normal childhood."

Naruto went still again as the shaking stopped abruptly and Kira felt the blond shift in his arms. "But…but I _not_ normal."

"From my perspective you are; you don't hate humans with a passion, you still try to be nice and friendly with people; you're everything I'm not." Kira explained quietly. "And trust me; you don't _want_ to be like me."

Naruto knew all too well how Kira was, but still…no, he _could_ trust Kira no matter what. "I'm…I'm Black Fox," This Naruto felt Kira stiffen around him, "and I killed someone."

* * *

><p><em>Airport Washroom, 11: 12 am<em>

Kurotsuchi stared down at the Bingo book in her hands and at the face staring emotionlessly back up at her. The picture was supposed to have been presumably close to how this Uzumaki Kira looked. The younger Uzumaki's I.D was somewhere further in the book, but she didn't bother with looking at his; already knowing all that was needed to know about him.

To be honest, seeing as the blond boy was supposed to be the Yondaime's son, he wasn't all that impressive, especially considering he was also a Jinchuuriki.

No, her attention was solely on the 'bigger fish' so to speak. The more important one in the long run; though that pesky bond they seemed to have would be a problem at worst and could be exploited at best if need be.

Oh, she hated the blond Uzumaki solely because of who his father was, but the other one _wasn't_ related by blood. And looking down at the outfit she'd been fitted in for her new assignment was quite simple. Lure the older one out and try to convince him to turn himself over to Iwa allegiance.

Of course she wouldn't _tell_ him that that the condition would be to give up his brother. So yeah, first things first then: try to get him to listen.

And since the older Uzumaki would be less inclined to listen to _anyone_ from _any_ nation then trying to get to him as 'someone else' might be a better angle to work at.

And so the need for this ridiculous costume in the first place. Her eyes narrowed as she thought about what to call herself before it came to her. _Quake._

* * *

><p><em>Uzumaki Residence, 12:39 pm<em>

"You did what?"

Naruto cringed at the tone. "I killed someone."

"Not that," Kira retorted and the blond looked up in surprise and shock, "what do you mean you're Black Fox? You mean you've been _sneaking out of the house _when you're supposed to be sleeping?"

Naruto felt torn between shock and relief. Shock at Kira's blatant disregard over the fact he'd killed someone and relief that he wasn't being pushed away in disgust. While his brother always managed to maintain a higher standard for himself, he made it _also_ blatantly clear that he _didn't_ care about whether people died or not.

He really should have realized sooner that Kira would be angrier with him sneaking _out_ than about this. In a way though, it made him feel even worse because Kira had never killed anyone before despite his obvious disdain for human beings.

And upon Kira realizing he had the emotional depth and _morality_ for that matter of toast, he suddenly understood why Naruto would be upset about killing someone. "I'll admit that I don't really know the baggage that killing someone can bring," he admitted, "and I don't _plan_ on ever doing that, but I'll pretend for a moment like I care about the life of a worthless-" he paused and his nose turned up-"of a human." He added with a deadpan.

Naruto supposed that even for his sake that Kira's ingrained hatred wasn't going to go away and this was as close to sympathetic as he was going to get. "I left that night to stop that Iron Maiden woman and with Spider-Man's help I shoved a cable into her armor on the shoulder and she disappeared in a flare of electricity."

"She just…disappeared?" Kira questioned as though he gears in his head were turning.

"Yeah, and the lightning shot out of the hole in the sky." Naruto replied.

Kira frowned thoughtfully and got off the bed, making hand signs and soon a clone of himself appeared and Naruto looked up curiously before Kira unceremoniously made another hand sign and a blast of fire shot out and hit the clone, the result being it disbursing in a flare of electricity towards the ceiling.

"Now, did the woman disappear like that?" he asked crossing his arms.

Naruto stared. "How…? What…?"

"That Naruto-kun was a lightning clone and they do that when they get dispelled." Kira explained.

Naruto was still staring, his expression frozen before he let out a shaky laugh. "You mean…that I've been feeling guilty over dispelling a clone?"

"That's right, you haven't killed anybody." Kira replied nodding.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to go back to normal straight away. "Oh man, I've got tell Kitty I'm sorry for ignoring her, and making such a bad first impression on her."

"Trust me, it's not as bad as mine or the one Kaa-chan left on Parker." Kira replied.

Naruto let out another laugh, but it faded as he frowned. "I should have realized sooner Iron Maiden was a ninja; she's not dead, so she knows that we live in New York."

"But _how_ would she have found us in the first place?" Kira muttered to himself before he grimaced and saw Naruto mirror the expression. He was thinking about the Bingo book that Snapdragon had and the only possible reason that his brother would be uneasy at this moment is…

"Let's cut to the chase, we both know that there's a bounty on our heads." Kira deadpanned.

Naruto reeled back in shock. "_Seriously_, how did _you_ find out?"

"I…" Kira hesitated briefly before deciding to get it out in the open. "I went after another woman that had come after the bounty and found it in the Bingo book she had. _Konoha_ put up the bounty."

Naruto was silent on that momentarily. "I can't believe-" he saw Kira narrow his eyes and he averted his own-"okay, I _can_ believe that."

"I need to go to work soon, but you can take this time to spend with Kaa-chan." Kira said before briefly hugging Naruto again and heading toward the door.

"Hey Kira-nii," Naruto called and Kira paused at the doorway and glanced back over his shoulder at him, "I know how uncomfortable about talking you are, so thanks, I appreciate it."

Kira smiled slightly and nodded before continuing on out the door.

* * *

><p><em>New York Mall, 1:00 pm<em>

"Cutting it kind of close, aren't you?" Sharon asked as Kira waked into the store and clocked in.

Kira glanced at her, the girl's scent still leaving him vaguely suspicious. It just didn't sit well with him and he wondered if she was something else. He knew she wasn't a ninja as even the Inuzuka's didn't smell like dogs, so she wasn't one that worked with cats.

It made him think about if she _was_ a cat. But that sounded crazy, didn't it?

The brunet didn't dwell on this until he could gather more information, though vetoed that too as it meant he'd have to spend _more_ time with the girl. "I suppose." He muttered.

"Aw, why so down, someone so cute shouldn't look so down." Sharon replied and grabbed a hold of his arm, not even letting him jerk his arm back on reflex. She had a grip on her he'd admit. "How about later we go hang out? Get you interacting with people then maybe you won't be such a frowny face all the time."

"More time with other people, or is that more time with _you_?" Kira retorted and jerked his arm free.

Sharon didn't look deterred nor did she miss a beat. "Let's call it both."

"Let's not." Kira replied and walked over to the first customer he could find just to get away from the girl. He'd never felt any attraction to _anyone_ before and he didn't exactly want to since if he never fell in love then he wouldn't risk losing anyone else.

The notion that while Kushina and Naruto _were _going to be living for a very long time thanks to the Uzumaki longevity, he knew that eventually they _would_ die. It weighed heavily on his mind all the time and had only added to his fierce protectiveness.

And he was also bitterly reminded of the fact his own life span would be even longer than theirs and even now he could start to see the aging process slowing down on him. By the age of twenty he'd still look something like a teenager.

Kira though found some irony that their mother was older and still looked to be in her early twenties. No _wonder_ Peter got so confused, but that still didn't excuse him for staring at her.

The brunet reached the woman at the stand where the shirts were displayed and noticed with dismay that this woman _also_ had whitish hair. What was _with_ that anyway? "Hello Miss, do you need any assistance?" he asked mechanically.

The woman didn't even look up. "No, just browsing." She said smoothly and even vaguely irritated.

Kira raised a brow, feeling slightly intrigued as anyone he asked was always having him go fetch something from the back or pointing out more things for them. "Very well." He said and turned away, but didn't notice the woman look up in surprise.

"On second thought, there is something you can help me with." The woman called and Kira turned to look at her, noticing her also green eyes and with a sense of dismay wondered if she was related to Sharon.

But since she wasn't showing any recognition of the woman standing behind him, Kira thought this was incorrect.

"Yes?" he questioned.

"These blouses, do they come in any other color than pink? Like black or purple?" The woman queried.

Kira nodded curtly. "I'll go look." he said and the woman made a move to follow him. "May I help you again?"

"It seems like such a bother to make you do that yourself." The woman said coyly, a stark contrast to her earlier irritated tone. It was as though his initial brusque brush off had intrigued her; so Kira figured this woman was used to having to having to tell people to get lost and not be on the receiving end.

Even though Lara had emphasized to him about keeping the customer happy when he'd made another woman particularly angry with how bad his attitude was, this was still a _customer_. "You can't go in there, customers aren't allowed."

"Surely you could make an exception." The woman said batting her eyelashes.

Kira didn't know what she was trying to pull, but it clearly wasn't working. "Rules are rules; now wait out here while I find what you are looking for." He didn't pause as he walked into the back and started to look around the boxes for any other blouses in the colors black and or purple.

The brunet finally found one way in the back, but when he came out, the white-haired woman was nowhere to be found. He walked over to the register that Lara managed. "Where's that woman that was just here? I found the blouse she wanted."

"She said to put it on layaway." Lara replied and pointed at the list of items and names on the clipboard beside the register for him to see. "See? 'One black blouse to be put on layaway for Felicia Hardy.'"

Kira nodded and went into the room behind the woman where the layaway clothes were put. When he came back out, Sharon was waiting for him, but before she could speak, Lara did.

"Shouldn't you be doing inventory, Ms. Smith?" she said coolly.

Sharon colored before nodding and walked away, though not before giving Kira a glance.

Kira felt almost grateful, but he couldn't let himself show it. "I could've handled that." He said neutrally.

"I'm sure you could have, but if you both made a scene then the customers would be driven away." Lara retorted and gestured to the store.

Kira saw the people in it and knew what she meant. It was time to go back to earning some commission, though before he could, a great rumble moved through the floor and the skylight in the center of the mall was smash through and the sounds of people screaming rang out.

He made his way over to the exit slowly as the customers and staff in the store ran out to get to the exits of the mall. A figure in a black costume and yellow headgear landed on the ground before looking directly up at him with her pink eyes and smirked.

Kira felt his hands clench into fists as he glared back at her on default and knew that if this woman was attacking for no good reason, then she wasn't just a super villain, she was here because she knew that _he'd_ be here. It was another bounty hunter.

The brunet glanced around, and while he had no problems with taking her down _now_, he couldn't do it because someone might recognize him later on and it would ruin everything for his brother and mother. Kira took one more glance around to make sure no one was looking at him or in his direction before he did a quick Genjutsu and hopped over the rail, using his chakra to soften his fall in his legs.

The woman looked him over appraisingly as she saw what he looked like at the moment and in the gleam of her pink eyes he could see his reflection staring back him, tanned skin, orange eyes, and bright red hair, his clothing looking too bright and cheery for his taste with the red and orange, but the point was that no else was _supposed_ to know it was him.

There was no mask or anything covering his face in the illusion, but he couldn't really be bothered with that now.

"Was it really necessary to get the humans involved, their police are going to be here any minute presumably." Kira growled out.

The woman smirked. "But that's not why I'm here."

"You're here for the bounty, aren't you?" Kira snarled.

A strange look made the woman pause, but she grinned back at him. "You could say that." She said before her hands flashed through hand seals and Kira was on the ready as he felt his chakra start following through him as he whispered 'Lightning armor' and a crackle of electricity crossed over his skin.

"Earth Release: Rising Stone Spikes!" she shouted and Kira had to move quickly to avoid the spikes that shot out of the earth to avoid getting impaled.

The teen used one of the spikes to send himself straight at the woman and punched her clean across the jaw, sending her flying back into the mall walls.

The woman rose back to her feet before spitting out the blood in her mouth. "My, my, you certainly like to play rough, don't you?" Kira didn't rise to her bait and she shrugged before her hands flashed through another set of seals and a green reflective glow danced across her. "Rock Armor; now where on an even playing field here."

Kira narrowed his eyes shooting himself over at her and started to rapidly try and hit her, though the woman was good as she matched each of his hits, but she was one step quicker as she feinted and knock _him_ clean across the jaw. He spat out the blood in his own mouth, but didn't comment.

The woman on the other hand seemed to get angry with this. "You can making a quip if you, hell, you can even _scream_ if you want, I don't mind."

Kira felt vaguely disturbed about the fact she implied she was going to try and make him scream. Whether she was just being creepy or not, he didn't really care and needed to bring her down _now_. His hands flashed through another set of hand signs and knew that using a lighting jutsu would be ineffective as her armor would just absorb it. "Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"

The air picked up and it barreled into the woman, who stood her ground and covered her face with her arms, her short hair whipping around in the wind before Kira took the distraction to speed forward again and spin-kicked her back into the wall, the wind pushing on her making the crater she made on impact even deeper and the armor 'broke,' with the green 'shards' dissipating onto the ground.

Kira made his way over as the wind died down and narrowed his eyes when he saw the woman lying unmoving against the wall and he still knew better than to assume she might be unconscious. Kira still kept his own armor on as he kicked her foot, but there was no response.

He still didn't believe she was unconscious though. "Genjutsu binding." He muttered and the woman's eyes snapped open in surprise, her muscles locking into place in her mind and she couldn't do more than give the teen a slight glare.

"Yeah, yeah, that look has no effect on me anymore." He deadpanned before feeling her pockets and pulled out a roll of ninja wire and opted to tie her up in it as even she wouldn't be able to tear it off herself without a kunai, and upon checking more, he disposed of those.

Kira stood up as he picked up the sounds of people that he could only assume were the police and he put the rest of the ninja wire in his own pocket, his lips twisting into a smirk. "Nighty night." He hissed before bashing her head against the wall and letting her slump to the ground so she wouldn't be much of a problem for the police to handle when they took her in.

The teen let the Genjutsu drop as he made his way out of the mall, not even feeling a bit curious as to what the woman's name was. But then again, he wasn't going to get her _real_ name so why did it matter?

Idly he wondered if work would be called off for the rest of the day, or even the week while the damage was being repaired. He knew his wind attack and her earth jutsu must have caused even more damage.

Kira smirked again. Oops.

* * *

><p><em>Uzumaki Residence, 2:36 pm<em>

"Kira-chan is rather…different than I remember." Kushina said tentatively as she helped Naruto with his water walking exercise.

"I know it can be kinda hard for other people to feel uncomfortable around him…" Naruto started off, but Kushina shook her head.

"It's not that I'm _uncomfortable_, it's just that…everything's changed since I can remember." She said smiling sadly. "Why, the last time I saw you was when you were just an hour old."

Naruto got out of the pool after his failed attempt and hugged the woman. "It's okay Kaa-chan, we're together again, that's all that matters."

Kushina hugged him back and nodded. "I just hope I can manage to be a mother to you both."

"Well now that you're out of the hospital you can be." Naruto said trying to make her feel better.

The sound of the front door opening reached their ears and Kira came in through the back door. "Work ended early." He said in lieu of a hello.

Kushina grimaced. Though Naruto she could be around easily enough, it would always be Kira she'd have to get used to as his attitude _was_ severely different than what she remembered.

Though a strong sense of rage came over her as she remembered exactly _who_ was to blame for this and knew it was time to get this straightened out once and for all.

Watch out Konoha, Uzumaki Kushina was not happy.

_(# Action Pack Issue 11: The Uzumaki's go back to Konoha, only to be brought into the midst of the Chunin Exam finals and are forced to help the village that betrayed them so from the Sound-Sand Invasion.)_


End file.
